Kuala Lumpur, Apr. 5: The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) wants the recruitment of eligible Indians into the public sector to go up to eight per cent.

According to a Malaysia Nanban report, currently, annual recruitment rate of Indians into the public sector is lower than five per cent.

MIC President S. Samy Vellu told reporters here after chairing the party’s central committee meeting that the number of Indians recruited was not enough to tackle unemployment in the Indian community.

Vellu said the MIC would also ask the Government to consider speeding up the process of recruiting Indians in government-linked companies (GLC), as well as in the private sector.

The ruling Barisan Nasional would get back the support of the Indian community if it met some of MIC's requests under the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

He said the requests included expediting measures to increase equity for the Indians through provision of a fund and the setting up of a foundation like Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) with the aim of increasing Indian equity to three percent by 2010.

He said that this was crucial because Indian equity had dropped to 1.2 percent from the previous 1.5 percent. (ANI)