The shortage of foreign workers should be resolved soon due to the arrival of foreign labor into Malaysia being too few compared with the amount of levies already paid at RM713,890 for the 467,223 approved quotas, said the National Recovery Council (MPN).
MPN chief executive officer Tan Sri Sulaiman Mahbob said the quota approval and levy payment statistics as of Sept 12, 2022, recorded 467,223 approved quotas. However, only 76,000 labor entries from 12 countries were recorded for the same period.
“That figure is too little compared to the levies already paid. Therefore, we want the Home Ministry and the Human Resources Ministry to review the process of hiring foreign workers because many sectors have a very high level of dependency.
“We found that many workers applied and made payments, but there are fewer people arriving. The question is, why haven’t they come? Does it involve their country’s problem or some other reasons? This point needs to be emphasized, otherwise, the agriculture sector, especially palm oil, will continue to suffer problems from workers shortage,” he told the media during a briefing.
He explained that labor-intensive industries such as the manufacturing, tourism, construction and retail sectors, including the electronics and agriculture sectors are also seen to be affected by the labor shortage issue.
