KUALA LUMPUR (March 26): The government will continue to focus on training in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), especially at the highest levels, to boost foreign investments in the country, Dewan Rakyat was told.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the country's current weakness lies in training in mathematics, science, engineering, artificial intelligence (AI), and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) at the highest level.

“We can do it if we give full focus and additional allocation (to training in the STEM field),” he said during minister's question time on Tuesday.

Anwar said this in reply to Jimmy Puah Wee Tse (PH-Tebrau), who wanted to know the government's efforts to ensure that the investment momentum obtained last year, amounting to RM329.5 billion, continues to increase in the years to come.

Anwar, who is also finance minister, admitted that the interest of students in STEM is declining and that is a matter of great concern.

He said the Ministry of Education and other educational groups have taken various steps to urge parents to encourage their children to engage in STEM education at the secondary level.

“This is being worked on more seriously,” said the prime minister.

Besides, Anwar said that in all his meetings with foreign companies that intend to invest in Malaysia, he always emphasised the importance for those companies to have their centre of excellence located in Malaysia to provide skills training to professionals and local students.

“There must be training here because we currently lack engineers. The engineers that we produced, although good and well-received, are still considered to be lacking at the highest level of skills or efficiency.

“So there is a gap about the required niche. Therefore, this focus on TVET and engineering needs to be given attention...I agree that if Malaysia does not do something immediately, we will be on the losing end.

“This is because the focus now is no longer on the low-end industry but on the high-end industry which requires higher efficiency than what is available now,” he said.

In that regard, Anwar said he had asked local universities, starting with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), to establish an AI Faculty that should coordinate their activities with all universities that conduct AI to meet their needs in that field.