SHAH ALAM, MAY 10: The Returning Expert Programme (REP) by Talent Corporation Malaysia (TalentCorp) has managed to attract only 398 Malaysian professionals back home compared to the target of 1,200 people.
TalentCorp Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Shareen Shariza Abdul Ghani said, Malaysians who have spent a long time abroad may not be familiar with the opportunities and developments in this country.
She said, other personal factors such as children’s education is the biggest factor stopping them from coming back.
“What we need is to ‘sell’ the country better, ‘sell’ the opportunities so that they want to return home,” said Shareen as quoted by MalaysiaKini.
REP was re-launched in 2011 with the aim to provide tax exemption and other initiatives for Malaysian professionals to return home.
Many Malaysians who participated in REP were from the oil and gas industry followed by the financial and accounting sector, commercial services, communications as well as electrical and electronics.
Most of them were from Singapore, China, United Kingdom, Australia and America and their numbers in 2016 were half than the 800 being the target.
In 2016, TalentCorp’s estimated budget for REP was 5.5 percent (RM518,000) from the total of RM9.42 million.
