Workshop on

Venue:
Plenary hall (1st floor)
Shah Alam Convention Center (SACC)

YB Puan Hannah Yeoh, Selangor State Assemblyman for Subang Jaya
Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Mohd Jabar Ahmad Kembali, CEO of SSIC Berhad;
Yang Berbahagia Puan Jauriah Ghani, Director of MIDA Selangor
Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Dato’ Prof. Dr. James Alfred, Chairman of FMM Selangor
Honoured speakers and panelists,
Tan Sri-Tan Sri, Dato’-Dato’, Datin-Datin,
Ladies and gentlemen,

First and foremost, I would like to express my thanks and appreciation to Selangor State Investment Centre (SSIC) and Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers Selangor (FMM)  for taking the lead in organising this workshop for all of us here today.

Secondly, I am very grateful to all the manufacturers, worker recruiters, outsourcing companies, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Human Resource, RELA Selangor and Immigration Department for sharing with us the role that they play in the labour shortage issue and their perspective of it.

Thirdly, I am very pleased to see all of you here today. By your strong attendance, it is clear that your interest and concern towards the labour shortage challenge is high.

I am aware that in recent years, industrialists have reported that they are finding it challenging to recruit sufficient numbers of workers for their industrial operations.

This labour shortage has made it hard for them to expand their existing operations and to open new factories. It has caused investors to miss business opportunities which in turn reduced Malaysia’s GDP.

It has also been equally challenging for MIDA, SSIC and myself to promote Malaysia and Selangor as a destination for FDI when the labour shortage is well known among foreign investors and has jeopardised our investment promotion efforts.

I believe that the government departments present here have taken note of how manufacturers and labour recruiters have been suffering from the sudden and unexpected freezing and unfreezing of work permits for new foreign workers, and the non-renewal of existing foreign workers’ permits, as was shared by manufacturers and recruiters in our earlier sessions such as May Plastics Manufacturing, STATS ChipPac, KWE Resources and Prima Duti Sejati.

All these policies may have given investors the impression that the Malaysian government is not pro-business and insensitive towards the needs of the business community and the economic needs of our country.

Knowing this, I have been constantly raising this issue to the federal government and ministers on this issue at the Dewan Rakyat in my role as a Member of Parliament.

By coincidence, my question on the labour shortage in Malaysia directed at the Ministry of Human Resources surfaced in Parliament this morning.

My question was, “What is the number of insufficient workers in the manufacturing sector broken down by states in Malaysia, and what steps is the government is taking to overcome this challenge in light of the labour shortage which has caused investors to withdraw their investments from Malaysia?

I will summarise the answer by the Ministry of Human Resource for you:

The registration of active job vacancies by employers with JobsMalaysia for the manufacturing sector as of 31 May 2010 is 78,553.

Selangor tops the list with the highest number of manufacturing job openings at 23,246. In second place is Johor with 21,336 openings and Penang with 12,821 openings.

According to the Ministry of Human Resource, they have been trying to fill these vacancies with various programmes which include

1)    Organising Job Placement programmes to allow jobseekers and employers to meet face-to-face. This programme is conducted in cooperation with the Labour Department once a year at the national-level and twice a year in each state

2)    Organising Special Job Placement Programme for the identified poor and hardcore poor who want to work

3)    By setting up 11 JobsMalaysia Centre throughout the country under the Community-Based Employment Support Service and by using the JobsMalaysia portal as an enabler, among other steps

4)    Have dialogue with employers to increase wages and offer more benefits and facilities to workers to attract more local workers

In the answer, the Ministry of Human Resource also stated the long term steps they are taking to reverse the labour shortage situation, among which are:

1)    Providing specially designed skills training courses to equip jobseekers with the skills based on the employers’ needs

2)    Establishing a High Income Policy by studying the rate of minimal wage in all sectors

3)    Providing loans through the Perbadanan Tabung Pembangunan Kemahiran to allow jobseekers to improve their skills

5)    Encouraging the use of automation to reduce our dependence towards human labour

6)    Reducing dependence upon foreign labour through the levy mechanism, freezing the hiring of certain foreign workers according to the sending country, no new approvals to new foreign worker outsourcing, limiting the number of years a foreign worker can work in our country to 5 years and updating all the procedures and processes of hiring foreign workers.

I believe that many of you, including myself, have reservations on the answers given by the Ministry of Human Resource. I believe that all of you are well aware of the real situation as you are on the ground working with, meeting with, recruiting and managing workers.

I have heard your views and thank you for them. I wish to assure you that the Selangor State Government views this labour shortage challenge very seriously. Together with SSIC, we have been strategizing how to address this challenge.

In certain cases, we have tried to recruit more local workers by engaging with Ketua Kampungs, local councilors and school headmasters together with factories located in their local community.

In addition, I agree with the view expressed by the Chairman of FMM Selangor, Tan Sri Dato Professor Dr James Alfred that the government should allow Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) to determine the number of workers needed to be hired for each individual case because MIDA is in the best position to understand the human resource needs of each manufacturer and industry.

I have also been urging the Ministry of Human Resource and Immigration Department to minimise the bureaucracy, and offer their full cooperation to MIDA and investors by giving the necessary approvals for the industrial projects which MIDA has already vetted and approved. I hope they will consider FMM’s proposal.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The labour shortage challenge is a complex one that developed over many years involving many factors and many stakeholders.

The solution will not come overnight but with constant open dialogue, both at the state and most importantly with government agencies at the Federal Level, we will be able to jointly formulate a more sustainable labour policy for our collective prosperity.

Last but not least, on behalf of the Selangor State Government, I offer you our firm commitment in engaging with all of you to address the labour shortage and all other challenges faced by industrialists.

Thank you.