KUCHING: To address labour shortage, Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (Soppoa) has suggested to the Sarawak government that manpower from India, Timor, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka be roped in.
Association chairman Eric Kiu Kwong Seng said this during a courtesy call on Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department (Labour, Immigration and Project Monitoring) Datuk Gerawat Gala.
“Following the opening of borders and a series of announcements by Putrajaya, Sarawak still has yet to see any inbound foreign manpower for employment in the oil palm sector.
“This industry has suffered from production losses as a result of labour shortage since the pandemic and would need about 45,000 workers to bring it back to normalcy.”
He pointed out that South Korean companies had recruited Timorese to work in their country since 2009. “Due to their similarity in terms of culture and language with Indonesia, it would be advantageous for Sarawak to consider hiring Timorese.”
Gerawat acknowledged that there had been signs of the Indonesian government discouraging their citizens from working in Malaysia.
“Moreover, its new capital, reportedly requires about a workforce of about a million, has created an abundance of jobs for them at home.”
He said the Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS) for employers to apply and hire migrant workers was only for Peninsular Malaysia.
For Sarawak, foreign worker processing still involved the labour and immigration departments.
He said that since the last meeting with Soppoa, his department had looked into streamlining all the processes. “The time for applying for the AP quota that used to take up to two to three months is shortened to not more than one-and-a-half months.”
“The new labour license application that takes two to three months is cut to within seven days; and the Calling Visa application from two to four months to less than 30 days,” Gerawat added.
“The department is acting as a one-stop centre for foreign worker recruitment. In addition, by incorporating ICT, the recruitment processing time should be improved dramatically soon.”
