Foreign labour conundrum

“We’re in a very tough situation now. Even with the good crude palm oil price, we’re not able to take full advantage because we are very short of workers." Datuk Mohd Nageeb Abdul Wahab

MALAYSIA’s over-reliance on foreign labour is something that the government has been trying to do away with for the longest time.

It all boils down to striking an equilibrium - finding a balance between the nation’s productivity and competitive edge, a healthy composition of local and foreign labour force, unemployment, better minimum wages and automating enough so that manual labour is kept to a minimum.