KUALA LUMPUR – The National Recovery Council (NRC) recommends the relevant ministries and agencies to further simplify the procedures for the recruitment and entry of foreign workers into the country.
NRC chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said he was disappointed that the issue of the entry of foreign workers into the country had not been resolved even though the procedure was said to be relatively simple.
“We also discussed this matter (at today’s NRC roundtable discussion session) and during the last session.
“Although the procedure is said to be relatively simple, the process of hiring foreign workers is slow and this has a big impact on productivity and the country’s recovery process,” he said after a roundtable discussion here today.
He said the recruitment of foreign workers was a requirement for various economic sectors such as plantation, construction, manufacturing, factory, as well as small and medium enterprises to continue their production.
On the country spending over RM77 billion on subsidies, Muhyiddin said the NRC was taking follow-up action to ensure that the government did not continue to bear the burden of high subsidies.
He said many NRC members suggested for the government to provide targeted subsidies, which is to certain groups that are more entitled to receive them.
“If it continues to increase because of the increase in the price of goods, that for me will probably be burdensome and maybe the government will not be able to afford this," he said.
Apart from that, Muhyiddin said the NRC also raised the issue of food security by evaluating measures to increase the country’s food supply in a short time as the agro-food sector was important for the country’s future. – Bernama, July 19, 2022
