Skilled labor shortage hits Asian export growth

Skilled labor shortage hits Asian export growth

SINGAPORE (AFP): A shortage of skilled labor is restricting export growth in major Asian trading nations, senior company executives across the region said in a survey released here yesterday.

"This is especially so in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and China, where more than six in 10 respondents perceived the problem," said the DHL-Gallup survey, which measures business confidence among exporters.

A total of 1,125 executives were polled in 15 countries including Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The poll was commissioned by parcel delivery company DHL Worldwide and conducted by the Gallup Organization.

More than nine out of 10 exporters in Vietnam perceived a shortage of skilled labor as restricting export growth over both the short and the long term, while more than seven out of 10 respondents in Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan held the same view, the survey said.

The survey also detected pessimism among exporters in Japan, South Korea and China over export orders in the next 12 months.

Across the region, there was a belief that the United States and Europe were potential growth markets for regional exports in 1997.

Exporters in a majority of countries cited cost and trade atmosphere as the most important factors affecting sales, it said. Three in five Japanese respondents said the yen exchange rate would play a large role.

ASEAN countries were cited as the export markets which experienced the best growth in the last 12 months. ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"Over the next 12 months ASEAN countries are perceived to be a growth area for exports by at least 40 percent of exporters in seven of the 15 countries surveyed," the survey said.

India, China and Vietnam were rated as the most difficult countries for initiation of trade, and Hong Kong and Singapore the easiest,

The survey said a majority of executives expected stability in Hong Kong after the July 1 handover to China, with more than half the respondents believing the economy and business in Hong Kong will remain the same or improve.

The exception was Singapore, in which nearly half the respondents expected the Hong Kong economy to be worse off, it said.