TOKYO - Malaysia’s central bank warned in Tokyo on June 10 that labour-market skills gaps could limit ASEAN+3 economies’ ability to attract higher-value, technology-driven investment, affecting the kind of jobs created in the region.

Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour made the remarks during an ASEAN+3-related panel at the Nikkei Forum Future of Asia 2026. National Bank of Cambodia Governor Chea Serey and East Asia Business Council 2026 Chairman Jay Y. Yuvallos also joined the session.

Rasheed said Malaysia had shifted in recent years from focusing mainly on investment volume to looking more closely at investment quality. He said Malaysia’s National Investment Aspiration framework looks at whether investment creates higher value added, high-income jobs, stronger domestic economic linkages and greater economic complexity.

“We used to attract investments in the past, it's just investment, more the number but not so much on quality,” he said.

For ASEAN+3, Rasheed said the first priority is closing labour-market skills gaps. He said shortages of specialised talent and skill mismatches are becoming a binding constraint for technology-driven sectors that require technical skills and adaptability.

The warning matches global labour-market data. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, published on January 8, 2025, said 39 percent of workers’ existing skill sets are expected to change or become outdated by 2030. It also said 63 percent of employers cite skills gaps as a key barrier to business transformation.

The labour shift is tied to the kind of investment moving through the region. Rasheed pointed to large-scale investment in data centres and AI infrastructure, but said ASEAN+3 still faces slower productivity growth and gaps with the global technology frontier.

ADB’s Asian Economic Integration Report 2026 said digital transformation continues to drive investor interest in Asia and the Pacific. It also said high-skilled migration remains concentrated outside the region, leaving low- and semi-skilled migrant workers more exposed to disruption in destination economies.

“Without closing this gap, I think investment risks staying in the low-to-mid value segments with limited productivity spillovers to the country itself,” Rasheed said.