PLEDGE TO RESOLVE LABOUR SHORTAGE
New Sabah Times20th December, 2009
NEW DELHI: The government has assured it will soon step in to address the labour shortage woes in the palm oil plantations in Sabah.
Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said only genuine foreign workers would be allowed to work in the state.
“We have no problem getting plantations to recruit foreign workers, especially in Sabah. But they must come with proper documents. I don’t want them to recruit illegal immigrants,” Dompok told Bernama in Delhi.
The minister was responding to a recent media report in Malaysia that the palm oil industry in Sabah would lose billions, due to a large number of Indonesian workers returning to their homeland, as salaries are almost the same back home.
The Malaysian Palm Oil Association chief Datuk Mamat Salleh had told the media that revenue would be seriously affected due to the shrinking labour force.
“If foreign workers, comprising half of the 600,000 workforce in the palm oil industry, is reduced by 30 per cent, Malaysia’s export earnings could shrink as much as RM10 billion a year,” Mamat was quoted as saying.
Dompok said Malaysia was now facing competition from Indonesia.
“We also want to see how we can encourage locals to work in the plantation sector,” he added.
According to the Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC) in Sabah, the industry contributes about RM4 billion in state revenue and employs 130,000 workers.
Sabah is the largest palm oil producer in Malaysia and owns about 1.4 million hectares, producing 5.8 million tones of crude palm oil. Malaysia is the world’s second largest producer of palm oil after Indonesia.
Dompok was in Delhi to inaugurate the Malaysia-India Palm Oil Trade Fair and Seminar (POTS) 2009 earlier this week.
