THe government has approved a quota of 20,970 workers for the plantation sector under the Foreign Worker Employment Relaxation Plan (FWERP) as of March 18.

Deputy Plantation and Commodities Minister Siti Aminah Aching said Malaysia is still in need of foreign workers in the near term.

She added that the ministry has engaged with the Human Resources and Home Affairs Ministries to speed up and simplify the entry of foreign workers to meet the needs of the plantation sector.

“The shortage of and dependence on the foreign labour force in the oil palm plantation sector arose due to the lack of involvement of local workers, especially in harvesting and picking fresh fruit bunches… This work is now dominated by foreign labourers,” she said in the Dewan Negara today.

She said this in reply to a question from Senator Mohamad Fatmi Che Salleh who asked about the action plan to address the country’s of and high dependence on foreign labour, especially on the oil palm plantations.

Siti Aminah noted that the plantation sector was one of five critical sectors in need of a significant number of foreign workers.

The five sectors are allowed to employ foreign workers from 15 countries without having to meet the normal prerequisites to recruit labour from abroad.

Meanwhile, Siti Aminah said the government is focusing on enhancing the Mechanisation and Automation Research Consortium of Oil Palm (Marcop) launched in 2021 to encourage mechanisation and automation on plantations.

“With the establishment of Marcop, the government aims to increase the application of technology, mechanisation and automation in plantations to reduce the use of labour and boost productivity,” she said. – Bernama, March 27, 2023.