Seminar (Opportunities Within A Crisis - Mark Chang, Leo Arinayanaka, 17th Feb, 4pm-7pm)

Thanks to Daniel Cerventus for this information.

Quoting this from Entrepreneurs Malaysia

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On the 17th of Feb, Tuesday, TeAM and MDEC are joining forces to bring you “Opportunities within a Crisis”. We will be hearing from the experiences of 2 amazing entrepreneurs who made their mark during the last economic downturn Mark Chang, CEO of Jobstreet and Leo Arinayanaka, CEO of Scicom.. both running public listed companies. We will also be hearing from the COO of the blue ocean strategy institute, Peter Ng!
Venue:

MSC Malaysia Cyber Centre
Incubation Centre
Block 1B, Level 3 (1B-3-1)
Plaza Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral 5
50470, Kuala Lumpur

Date: 17 Feb 2009 (Tues)
Time: 4.00pm – 7.00pm

Due to limited seats for the dialogue, we kindly invite you to register by completing the registration form and submit before Tuesday, 17th February, 2009.

Payment will be settled at the door. Please make cheques out to Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia
RM30 for TeAM, NEF & MSC Status.
RM50 for non-members


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Talk by Dr. KS Jomo (16th Feb, 8pm)

Thanks to Jing Pei for sharing this!

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Strategic Information and Research Development Centre (SIRD) Publishing invites you to a public talk on

The World Economic Crisis and Asia

by Dr Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, and Member, United Nations Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System

Date : 16 th February 2009 (Monday)

Time : 8.00pm – 10.00pm

Venue : The KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, No. 1, Jalan Maharajalela, 50150 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Together with his colleagues, Dr K. S. Jomo was responsible for United Nations and other reports warning from late 2006 about the likelihood of the current crisis.

All are welcome. Please feel free to circulate this notice.

For further details, please contact Mr Zulhabri at 03-79578342/ 8343 or 019-389 3804
Mr Chong Ton Sing at 016- 379 7231

We look forward to welcoming you to this interesting talk.

Yours sincerely.

Mr Chong Ton Sin
Executive Director, SIRD

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Talk on Global Economic Meltdown - 18th Feb 2009

Lifelong Learning is organizing "Global Economic Meltdown: Its Implication & How To Cope".

The talk by Y. Bhg Tan Sri Dato' Dr. Lau Ban Tin.

It would be on 18th February 2009 (Wednesday), 7:30pm to 9:30pm at Auditorium, Dewan San Choon, Wisma MCA, Jalan Ampang.

Registration / Inquiry : MCA Lifelong Learning Secretariat, Tel: 03-2161 8044 ext 418-421 (Ms Law /Ms Tan / Ms Hoo )

Email: info@lll.net.my
Website: http://www.lll.net.my

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Chen Chow's Other Posts
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Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share

Feel free to quote any post within my blog, as long as you link it back here. Sharing is always a good virtue. :)

How to Survive Recession

With financial crisis looming, how many of us are equipped to tackle it? Are we ready to face the on-slaught?

JobStreet.com Singapore invites its members to share on how they cope with recession and you can read a number of those winning entries here

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Chen Chow's Other Posts
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Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share

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Job Market in Malaysia

Today, New Straits Times carried a few articles that is related to job market.

Read here and here .

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KUALA LUMPUR: Unemployment in Malaysia could reach six per cent this year, its highest in more than 20 years, as the economy slows down significantly, economist Datuk Dr Zainal Aznam Yusof said.
But as the economy picks up again, unemployment will fall to four to five per cent in 2010.

The government expects the economy to grow by 3.5 per cent this year, from a targeted 6-6.5 per cent growth last year.

Zainal Aznam believes that the country's gross domestic product would likely experience a severe slowdown to two per cent this year.

"It is a shock to the system and the brunt is on employment."
Malaysia has a working population of 11 million. A six per cent rate translates into 660,000 unemployed people.

"We should brace for a large overhang of unemployed, especially when the graduates enter the job market."

Zainal Aznam, who is a member of the high-level National Economic Council, said retrenchment was anticipated across all sectors of the economy although the bulk would be in export-oriented industries.

"So far, the (monthly) retrenchment is not huge yet, but it is going up," he said.

Most of the laid-off workers in the construction and plantation sectors are expected to be foreigners, while it is the other way around in the services and manufacturing sectors.

The services sector, which is likely to recover fastest from the global slowdown, is expected to cushion the economic slowdown as it provides jobs.

The sub-sectors with potential include financial, tourism, education, health, information communication technology, professional services, construction-related services and manufacturing-related services.

Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam has said that more than 45,000 factory workers could be temporarily laid off during the Chinese New year period due to a drop in orders.

They have been asked to take paid or unpaid leave for two or three weeks during the festive period.

Human Resources Ministry statistics show that 7,500 workers were laid off between October last year and Jan 14. The number included 2,000 foreigners in various sectors.

Most of the retrenchment was in the manufacturing sector involving local manufacturers and foreign multinationals.

The official unemployment rate for last year is not out yet, but the ministry has said that the number of retrenched workers should be around the previous year's 30,000.

A total of 102 employers had reported to the ministry that they would lay off 4,700 workers between this month and March.

The majority of these workers are in the electrical and electronics sector.

This includes 1,500 Western Digital workers who will be made redundant when the hard-drive disc manufacturer winds down its Sarawak plant by March.

Ministry secretary-general Thomas George, who chairs a committee set up to monitor retrenchment in view of the global slowdown, said retrenchment was at a manageable level.

"It is consistent with the global trend of having leaner and more productive organisations," he said earlier this month.

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KUALA LUMPUR: A three-day week may be on the cards for companies and factories if workers and employers agree to shorten operations, Labour director-general Datuk Ismail Abdul Rahim said yesterday.
He said the government's main concern was to ensure minimal job loss and for companies to continue operating.

He said it was necessary for employers to get the consent of workers, who would be paid less if they worked fewer days.

"It is the duty of the department to ensure that workers are adequately protected and, at the same time, companies do not lose out."

He felt that it would be ideal if employers, workers and unions worked together for the good of the nation.
The Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) is of the view that it is better for workers to take a temporary pay cut than to lose their jobs.

"As employers, we do not want to lose our employees and will do our best to retain as many as possible," MEF executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said.

"However, economic conditions are such that we sometimes have no choice but to cut back on employment to keep afloat ."

Since Jan 1, about 10,000 workers had lost their jobs, with more expected to face the axe if the economic situation did not change for the better, he said.

He added that although the United States and Europe were the worst affected by the global crisis, Malaysia would not be spared either as it was a major trading nation and depended a lot on exports to these markets.

The government had proposed that retrenched workers be paid RM500 monthly while waiting for a new job.

They may also be retrained to acquire new skills or improve on existing skills.

However, according to Ismail, the mechanics of the payment and training was still being worked out.

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress has pledged to cooperate with the government and employers to ride out the difficult times.

Its secretary-general, G. Rajasegaran, said all affiliates had been informed to extend their cooperation and maintain industrial harmony.

Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Noraini Ahmad advised workers facing retrenchment or whose companies were folding up to contact the ministry for assistance.

She said the Labour Department would place the names of the affected workers in its Workers Mini Carnival programme.

"We will retrain workers who have been retrenched and give them RM500 each for the duration of their training," she said. -- Bernama


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Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share

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76,000 Lose Their Jobs in a Day

76,000 people lose their job in a day. This marks one of the worst day of this recession.

Quoting this from Financial Times

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Corporate bellwethers in the US and Europe slashed more than 76,000 jobs from their payrolls to confront the deepening economic downturn, marking one of the most brutal days yet for workers on both sides of the Atlantic.

US corporate groups such as Caterpillar, General Motors, Sprint Nextel and Home Depot led the retreat, as the domestic recession coupled with tough export markets continued to take a heavy toll on their businesses. Pfizer, the drugs group, added to the tally saying jobs would be lost in its takeover of Wyeth.

Large European companies such as Philips, the Dutch electronics company, financial group ING and the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus, which is owned by India's Tata Group, struck the same downbeat tone as they unveiled plans to axe staff.

In many cases, the cutbacks accompanied disappointing quarterly results or bleak outlooks for 2009, when many of the world's largest economies are expected to be hit by severe downturns.

Raymond Torres, head of the International Labour Organisation's research institute, said employers were shedding workers far more quickly in this recession than in the early 1990s.

"We have a vicious circle of depression, where job losses lead to falling consumption, which lowers industrial confidence, which leads to less investment, which results in more job losses, and so on," he said.

Caterpillar, the world's largest maker of construction equipment, said it would cut 20,000 jobs as it reported fourth-quarter profits more than 32 per cent lower than a year ago and warned earnings would be under pressure in 2009. The news comes a month after the US group slashed executive salaries by up to half and cut jobs at large plants.

Sprint Nextel, the US mobile-phone operator, is to cut 8,000 jobs, or 14 per cent of its workforce, while DIY retailer Home Depot is shedding 7,000 posts and freezing salaries as it battles a consumer slowdown in the US.

Pfizer said 19,500 people would lose their jobs after its takeover of US rival Wyeth, while General Motors, the troubled carmaker, announced 2,000 job losses at two plants in Michigan. After the US markets closed, chipmaker Texas Instruments eliminated 3,400 positions. The news in the US came after ING said it would axe 7,000 of its 130,000 global staff and Philips announced the loss of 6,000 jobs as it accelerated restructuring plans.

Corus, Britain's largest steelmaker, announced cuts of 3,500 from its global workforce of 41,000, with more than 2,000 jobs to go in the UK where it employs 20,000.

Reporting by Justin Baer and Francesco Guerrera in New York, Andrew Ward in Washington, Hal Weitzman in Chicago, Richard Milne in London and Frances Williams in Geneva

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Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share

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