BY NATASHA JEE and ALEXANDRA LORNA
KUCHING: Sarawak is looking at adopting an Information Technology (IT) -based system to ease the process of recruiting foreign workers in the state.
With an IT system in place it is confident of reducing the now tedious process which can take up to even a year to within a month, if not a week.
Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said what happens now is that the process of labour applications involves several departments.
“Firstly, the application process has to go through the Labour Department, followed by the Immigration Department and finally the issuance of a labour permit.
“This will take time where the application is submitted to the Labour Department, then it is forwarded to the Immigration Department for review. Afterward, the Immigration Department carefully examines the application and forwards it to our committee under the State Secretary (SS) office.
“Considering the time taken from one department to another, the entire process can span several months, from three months to even a year. This is the problem we are facing.
“Therefore, the only solution is to use IT whereby your data is stored in one system and the data then can easily be shared with all the departments involved,” he said.
He said this during the ‘Sunday Morning with Premier 2.0 Dialogue Session with Young Entrepreneurs on New Economy’ event held at Imperial Hotel here on today (July 9).
Abang Johari said with such an IT system, it would allow faster decision-making, with permit issuance possible within one month or even one week.
“In this regard, I have requested Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department (Labour, Immigration and Project Monitoring) Datuk Gerawat Gala to oversee this initiative and adopt the new data sharing process.
“Once implemented, decisions can be made simultaneously thus expediting the overall process.
“We hope by the next two months, we can complete the whole process of processing the application of workers,” he said.
