PETALING JAYA: Reducing the country’s reliance on foreign labour will be one of the government’s areas of focus in 2024, says economy minister Rafizi Ramli.
Speaking at the Madani government’s one-year anniversary programme at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium grounds today, Rafizi said Putrajaya will pay extra attention to labour market reforms next year.
“The progressive wage structure is part of it, but there are many more examples, such as how we want to shift towards using local workers by gradually reducing dependence on foreign workers,” he said.
“That is the focus for 2024.”
He said the government will put a timeline in place to reduce dependency on foreign labour.
Yesterday, human resources minister V Sivakumar said the decision to freeze the hiring of foreign workers, including for next year, still stands.
He said that based on the 12th Malaysia Plan, the number of foreign workers should not exceed 2.4 million by 2025, but that number had already been reached.
In a Bernama report, Sivakumar said the foreign workers included those already in the country as well as the increase from the workforce recalibration programme and the foreign worker employment relaxation programme.
