ALOR SETAR, July 8 — The government hopes the private sector will also be committed to offering its close cooperation so as to realise a policy of progressive wage increases to parry the rising cost of living.
Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the government needs a comprehensive policy involving the private and public sectors as it is now the government’s priority to bridge the significant gap between the growth of wages and the increase in the cost of living.
“When I talk about solving the problems of the country’s economic structure, it has to mean raising people’s wages ... because the growth of people’s wages does not match the increase in the cost of goods.
“Measures to solve the problem of commodity prices and inflation are already in progress, but if the salary does not fluctuate regularly, (in tandem with the increase in the cost of living) it will not be resolved anytime soon,” he said after a Madani Tour programme at the Suka Menanti State Assembly area here today.
Yesterday, media reported that the government agreed to review the Civil Service salary scheme with a discussion due at the cabinet meeting next week since the last salary review was in 2013 for about 1.6 million public servants.
Rafizi said the government can no longer manage the economy in the old way by only focusing on investments because the rich will only get richer while wealth growth does not reach the people at large.
“The main focus now is to address extreme poverty, we need to prioritise this issue first by creating more jobs through agriculture and entrepreneurship. Our immediate attention is to address the issue of income,” he said. — Bernama
