Wee: Improve rehiring programme to address manpower shortage

PUTRAJAYA: The illegal foreign workers rehiring programme must be made more efficient to assist manufacturers who are facing a manpower shortage due to the freeze on foreign workers.

Only 55,000 illegals have been rehired so far, out of the estimated 1.4 million that are said to be in the country, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

“The Cabinet has considered this manpower shortage, and it has given the Deputy Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) the mandate to find a solution and also make the rehiring programme more systematic.

“We have to look at this issue rationally. We must find a method to make the rehiring programme more effective.

“It is not easy, we need to give the authorities more time to resolve this.

“If we hire new workers instead of rehiring the existing illegals that are still in the country, then there would be a problem,” said Dr Wee at a press conference yesterday.

He said that besides Dr Ahmad Zahid, who is also Home Minister, several other ministers such as Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed as well as ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar and Datuk Seri Paul Low had also been asked to help find a solution.

“For example, a manufacturer wants to find 200 workers and is willing to rehire illegals. But he has no idea where and how to rehire these workers.

“This needs to be looked into,” said Dr Wee.

The issue came about after a Federation of Malaysian Manufac­turers survey revealed that 84% of manufacturers were facing manpo­wer shortage.

Nearly half of them have not been able to fulfil existing orders, and both employers and industry players are pleading with the Government to reconsider the freeze.

Earlier, Dr Wee witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Bank Simpanan Nasional and the New Village Division of the Prime Minister’s Department.

Under the agreement, the Prime Minister’s Department has ap­­proved the allocation of RM20mil for the special loan scheme for new Chinese villages.

“The Prime Minister has agreed to our request to continue this programme due to its encouraging response,” he said.

The special loan scheme was introduced in 2011, under the 10th Malaysia Plan. From 2011 to 2015, a total of RM173mil had been approved to 5,268 applicants.

“The rate of non-performing loans has been low and at 3.24% only, so we felt it should be continued under the 11th Malaysia Plan,” said Dr Wee.

The special loan was introduced to help villagers, especially those in B40 group, to pay their land pre­mium, finance their micro-businesses and renovate their houses.