Local restaurant chain, Laksania, launched an initiative on Wednesday to encourage more restaurant owners to hire mentally disabled employees.

The restaurant, which has three branches, will identify, place and train workers from Movement of the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS) and the Association for Persons with Special Needs (APSN) together with other food and beverage outlets.

It has on its own since 2010 been recruiting and training these individual on a large scale.

Ms Sim Sin Sin, chief executive of Laksania said: "Food and beverage owners will be heartened to know that far from being a burden and an impossibility, these individuals are often deeply grateful for a stable and productive job that not only feeds them, but would give them purpose in life."

Ambassador-at-large Professor Tommy Koh, and Speaker of Parliament, Madam Halimah Yaacob, attended the launch on Wednesday.