Malaysia to cut foreign labour

Kuala Lumpur, May 22:

Malaysia said on Thursday it would aim at reducing the number of foreign immigrants in the workforce by 500,000 over the next three years.

Human resource minister S Subramaniam told parliament that the government was committed to minimizing the country’s dependency on immigrant workers, adding that there are currently 2.1 million foreign workers in all sectors.

“We want to reduce by at least 500,000 foreign workers,” he said.

Despite the governments pledge over recent years to cut back on foreign labour, the country’s

plantation and construction industries remain heavily dependent on immigrant workers.