Malaysia to decide about hiring foreign workers soon: Report

The Malaysian government will soon make an announcement about hiring foreign workers, according to local media.

The country’s government in February said it would not recruit anymore workers before determining its manpower needs, a day after it had agreed to hire 1.5 million workers from Bangladesh.

"I am very concerned about the issue of foreign workers, and I am aware that many sectors are affected,” The Star quoted Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying on Thursday night.

He said he had been receiving complaints from stakeholders within the country who want Malaysia to reopen its door to foreign workers.

"The government is listening, and there will be an important announcement on this matter in due course," he said at an event held by an association for chain store operators and franchisors in Malaysia.

Bangladesh, with 600,000 of its nationals working in many parts of the country, is listed as one of the source countries from which Malaysia recruits manpower.

The South-East Asian nation, after a long pause, resumed hiring manpower from Bangladesh in 2013, but only under government-to-government arrangements.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on Feb 18 meant Bangladeshi workers, who had been limited to just working in plantations under that agreement, could get jobs in the service, construction, farming and manufacturing sectors.