KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) has proposed for stakeholders to take intervention measures, such as expediting the arrival of migrant workers to address the shortage of labour in the oil palm plantations.
Director-general Datuk Abdul Latif Abu Seman said the arrival of a total of 32,000 migrant workers (field workers) from Indonesia must be accelerated as there is a shortage of workers to carry out harvesting work in the plantations following the closure of borders during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the shortage of harvesters among migrant workers saw the oil palm plantation sector incurring losses of RM21 billion in 2021, and it is expected to continue suffering losses of RM28 billion in 2022 if the foreign workers are not brought in immediately.
Additionally, the sector saw a decline in export of 4.4% in the fourth quarter of 2021 due to the shortage of local and migrant workers.
“To facilitate the process of hiring migrant workers, the process must be complete and efficient because currently, the coordination in the process must be switched to the full digitalisation platform without any human interference,” Latif said in a statement today.
As for the long-term intervention, the government and plantation owners are urged to cooperate in continuing the funding for reskilling and upskilling programmes, especially for local workers.
“Development and empowerment of local workers must be given full emphasis as them (workers) holding positions at the higher level, such as office workers and plantation managers will, ensure the management of the plantations are well taken care of.
“The provision of subsidies for the right educational programmes on oil palm plantation must also be given priority,” he said.
Latif also said the programmes introduced by the government must be designed and empowered toward good thinking, perception and understanding of the oil palm sector.
Programmes on awareness and preparedness must also be emphasised toward automation and mechanisation initiatives to attract more Malaysians to get involved in this sector, he added. – Bernama, May 23, 2022
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