Malaysia gov’t to accelerate hiring of foreign workers in five critical sectors: minister
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./.