Kuala Lumpur: Indian cooks and barbers may soon find it difficult to get jobs in Malaysia as the government here plans to train and employ locals in these fields.
Malaysian Indian restaurants will employ local cooks and not import chefs from India in the future, Human Resources Minister Dr S Subramaniam said in Kuala Lumpur.
"We hope to reduce the number of cooks from India in stages, especially in Malaysian Indian restaurants, once the first batch of locally-trained chefs graduate," he said at a local training school.
He also said that there had been encouraging response from locals to be trained as cooks under a ministry programme.
Dr Subramaniam said the fees for the trainees were borne by the ministry through the Human Resources Development Fund, adding that they would also receive monthly allowances.
"Once they graduate, they will be able to open their own restaurants," he said, adding that the future was promising for ethnic Indian youths.
The minister said the idea was mooted by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, who wanted the ministry to train local chefs and not depend on cooks from India.
Another training programme undertaken by the ministry was hair-styling, to replace barbers from India, he added.
"We want the two sectors (restaurants and hair salons/barber shops) to rely less on foreign workers and employ locally-trained people," he said.