SARAWAK needs to recruit tens of thousands of plantation workers from Kalimantan urgently and is negotiating with Indonesia to streamline working visa applications on both sides of the Sarawak-Kalimantan boundary.
Announcing this, Sarawak Minister of Food Industries and Commodities and Regional Development Datuk Seri Stephen Rundi Utom said the applications for working visas at present were bogged down by too much red tape.
"At present, the process of recruiting workers from Kalimantan and getting them into Sarawak could take up to two years.
"The current procedures are too complicated at both sides of the border.
"We are negotiating with the Indonesian Government to try to streamline the working visa application.
"We want to see the working visa approved and issued within 45 to 90 days at both sides of the Sarawak-Kalimantan border," he said at an event in Kuching.
Rundi said Sarawak is facing a severe shortage of plantation workers and suffering millions in lost revenue every month.
'Sarawak now has 1.62 million hectares of oil palm plantations.
"We also have 85 big palm oil processing mills statewide.
"These plantations and the processing mills are all facing serious shortages of manual workers.
"Without these workers, they cannot harvest and process adequately.
"So even though the price is good and there are plentiful fruitings, without enough workers, we are suffering enormous losses in revenue," he said.
Rundi said the state hoped to be able to bring in a large number of workers from Kalimantan as soon as possible. - January 8, 2025
