Nod for 100,000 foreign workers
2010-03-19
by A. LETCHUMANAN
KUALA LUMPUR: The Government has approved the recruitment of 100,000 new foreign workers over the past five months after appeals by manufacturing companies.
However, the Government is still committed to reducing the number of foreign workers in the country, Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said.
“We will have to do it (reduce the numbers) gradually because the demand from companies for foreign workers has been increasing after production picked up following the economic recovery,” he told reporters here after launching the QPC, a private company’s re-branding exercise.
He added that the number of foreign workers in the country had been reduced from 2.2 million to about 1.6 million in the past year.
Dr Subramaniam said the new applications for foreign workers were approved for four industries, namely electronics, plastic, furniture and gloves.
He said the Government approved the applications as a short-term measure to overcome worker shortage since locals were still not interested in taking up the job offers.
On the proposal to provide advance alimony payments for non-Muslim women not given alimony by their estranged husbands, Dr Subramaniam said the Cabinet had approved in principle for a mechanism to be set up to assist them financially.
He said the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry had been entrusted to come up with a mechanism soon.
Early this month, the Cabinet approved a RM15mil allocation as advance alimony for Muslim women whose ex-husbands failed to comply with the Syariah Court’s maintenance order, and the money would be recovered from the ex-husbands.
Meanwhile, in Segamat on Friday night, Dr Subramaniam said the Government aimed to find employment for 100,000 job seekers this year through various initiatives, including the setting up of community employment service centres nationwide.
Speaking to the media after presenting aid to 650 primary school pupils from lower-income families, Dr Subramaniam said each centre would be manned by at least one ministry officer, who would provide counselling and advice for job seekers, and match them with suitable jobs.
The centres will be located in major cities nationwide, starting with Cyberjaya, Klang, Malacca, Penang and Johor Baru later this month.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/2/7/nation/5632020&sec=n
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