Over 150,000 foreign workers to arrive in M’sia

A TOTAL of 152,158 foreign workers are expected to arrive in the country to meet the needs of various local industries, says V. Sivakumar.

The Human Resources Minister said there are already over 1.83 million foreign workers in the country on temporary employment visit passes (PLKS).

“The Recalibration Programme has also registered 747,167 previously undocumented migrants who were issued with new work permits,” he said in response to Datuk Awang Hashim (PN-Pendang) who asked about the number of foreign workers in Malaysia.

Awang had also asked about measures by the government to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign workers and the reskilling of local labour.

To this, Sivakumar said the government will continue with efforts to incentivise local industries to adopt digitalisation, mechanisation and automation technology in their operations.

“Adopting these new technologies will increase skilled worker demand, which will in turn incentivise more local workers to seek upskilling,” he said.