‘Freeze on workers cost furniture, plantation sectors RM7.7b’

KUALA LUMPUR: Putrajaya’s decision to freeze the intake of foreign workers led to the furniture and plantation sector incurring losses of over RM7.7 billion, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi revealed.

The inability to hire sufficient manpower, Zahid said, saw the local furniture industry record RM6.7 billion in losses, while the plantation industry incurred losses of over RM1 billion.

Many furniture companies, he explained, were unable to deliver their products for the international market on time.

“The furniture exporters have signed agreements with foreign buyers but they cannot fulfil their obligations due to the insufficient workforce.

“I know that the furniture industry alone needs more than 8,000 Bangladeshi employees and they are waiting for the freeze on intake to be lifted due to production issues.”

Zahid, who is also the home minister, said this when winding up the 2017 Budget for his ministry.

The plantation industries, he added, were also facing a shortage, especially in East Malaysia, whose immigration laws, Zahid noted, differed from those in the peninsula.

He clarified that the government had not appointed any broker or agent to hire foreign workers.

Zahid said the requests for foreign workers came directly from employers.

He stressed, however, that approvals were given on a “project basis”.

In February, the government suspended with immediate effect the recruitment of all foreign workers, including those from Bangladesh.

Zahid said there were 90,000 applications to legalise illegal immigrants, but more than half of the applications were disqualified due to incomplete verification by their respective embassies.

Sumber : Free Malaysia Today http://ift.tt/2ezGEh7