MalayMail-July 11
Malaysia is fast losing its appeal as a destination for migrant workers, economists cautioned, even as key sectors in the country were already struggling with manpower shortages due to regulatory obstacles to foreign recruitment. They warned that refusal or inability to swiftly address the issue would leave Malaysia vulnerable to falling further behind regional rivals in attracting investment, which would then present “painful” consequences. In the country’s economic boom of the 1990s, Malaysia had been a preferred destination for workers in poorer neighboring countries seeking better fortunes. This began changing after the Asian Financial Crisis, however, and worsened as others in the region recovered faster. The development, along with recent policy changes, have left some sectors that were reliant on migrant labor such as the food and beverage industry to struggle in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. “I see two things here. First of all, as our neighbors (Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines) are growing too — and with markets of a different scale — skilled workers find more opportunity at home than here in Malaysia, and this was already happening before the great lockdown,” Carmelo Ferlito, the chief executive of the Centre for Market Education (CME) and a senior fellow at the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas), told Malay Mail, referring to the effects on supply chain. “Secondly, during the past two years, the Malaysian government has worked hard to make the country less attractive for foreigners, with more difficult conditions for hiring foreigners, also the skilled ones. As you know, you now can hire a foreigner (expatriate) in Malaysia only if the offered salary is above RM15,000 per month. If not, you have to go through a painful selection process under government monitoring, and only if it has been proved that a local worker cannot fit the position you are then free to hire a foreigner.” Read more at: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2022/07/11/amid-migrant-labour-crunch-experts-warn-malaysia-increasingly-unattractive-to-foreign-workers/15938
