Malaysia’s Top Talent Is Fleeing to Singapore
A long-awaited reopening has begun. But the best and brightest are heading south, while lower-skilled workers are just trickling in.
Plenty to do at home.
Photographer: Shepard Sherbell/CORBIS SABA/Corbis via Getty Images
Malaysia’s economy is cranking up after the pandemic. Land borders with Singapore have reopened, bringing in millions of visitors. Kuala Lumpur’s notorious traffic jams are back and shoppers are flocking to malls. The revival also has a rich irony: So many workers have left for better-paid jobs in the country’s wealthy southern neighbor that businesses are struggling to meet demand.
From tourism to agriculture, an absence of staff is constraining the recovery. It’s also adding to deeper strains in an upper middle-income economy that was once a model for the developing world but has since suffered from a long-term slowdown in growth — one that started well before Covid-19. To graduate to the next tier of prosperous economies, Malaysia must staunch the flow of talented citizens abroad.