Master language to stay competitive, says deputy minister

KUALA LUMPUR: Lose English and lose the competitive edge.

Newly appointed Deputy Educa­tion Minister Chong Sin Woon said in order to compete globally, Malay­sia must embrace English.

“While it is true that English is not the most widely spoken language in the world (that honour falls to Mandarin), no other language is used more frequently by different speakers to share their ideas with one another than English,” he said when launching the Erican Inter­national English Language Teaching (ELT) Conference 2015.

Chong, who is also MCA Youth chairman, said statistics showed that around two billion people worldwide used English on a daily basis, with the number expected to rise.

“English is a bridging language for business. Also, it is estimated that roughly half of the content available on the World Wide Web is in English,” he added.

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