Home affairs minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (left) and Human Resource Minister V. Sivakumar chairing a meeting at Human Resources Ministry in Putrajaya on January 5, 2023. (Photo: www.malaymail.com) Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysia’s government will accelerate the implementation of a plan on promoting the recruitment of foreign workers in five sectors, namely manufacturing, construction, plantation, agriculture, and services (restaurants only), according to Human Resources Minister V Sivakumar.
Malaysia will relax the conditions for recruiting migrant workers in the above-mentioned areas, he said in a statement on January 17.
Employers in these five industries could submit applications for hiring foreign workers through the Foreign Worker Centralised Management System (FWCMS) platform with immediate effect.
The Ministry of Human Resources will process and approve applications for hiring foreign workers within three working days from the date the applications are received, he was quoted by Bernama news agency as saying.
Earlier, the government agreed to create a relaxation of Employment of Foreign Workers Plan, in addition to reimplementing the Labour Recalibration Programme, as a measure to meet the demand for migrant workers at a special meeting chaired by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on January 10.
The Malaysian government said it is expected that 500,000 foreign workers will be supplemented to the domestic workforce in 2023.
Statistics for 2022 showed that the Southeast Asian nation needs 500,000 foreign workers to address the labour shortage of micro, small and medium enterprises to support the country's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic./.
