Plasma to help reduce foreign workers: Nasrun
Published on: Sunday, August 06, 2017
Lahad Datu: The Government remains committed to reducing dependency on foreign workers, particularly in the plantation sector, which brings many risks including social problems to the country.Plantation Industries and Commodities Deputy Minister Datuk Datu Nasrun Datu Mansur said up to May 2017, there were a total of 428,000 oil palm plantation workers, 77 per cent or 328,400 of whom were foreigners.He said although the plantation sector provided wide employment opportunities, lack of interest among locals forced plantation companies to hire foreign workers.
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Hence, the Government through the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) has taken the initiative to set up the Malaysian Palm Oil Training Centre (Plasma) as an effort to reduce the dependency."It is undeniable that foreign workers have contributed to the development of the plantation sector but the influx also contributes to social problems if not controlled.According to Nasrun who is also Silam Member of Parliament, Plasma has successfully trained 2,500 people and 75 per cent of them have ventured into the plantation sector, particularly in handling the machinery."With the involvement of the Malaysian Plantation and Commodities Institute (Impac) and Plasma, I believe the level of farm machinery utilisation will be improved and further reduce the reliance on foreign workers," he said.
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Nasrun said the Government had allocated RM4.5 million under the 11th Malaysia Plan to assist the plantation sector buy machinery with a subsidy of up to 20 per cent.He said this was among the Government's initiatives to improve the productivity of the country's oil palm plantation sector, adding that the use of machinery will increase the income of farm operators and smallholders.
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