Malaysia, Vietnam ministers discuss plan to hire 100,000 workers<\/p>\n
Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
The foreign ministers of Malaysia and Vietnam discussed
\nMalaysia's desire Friday to recruit as many as 100,000 Vietnamese
\nworkers for the construction and plantation industries.<\/p>\n
The recruitment drive is aimed at easing Malaysia's dependency
\non workers from neighboring Indonesia following a riot by
\nIndonesians at a textile factory in January during a drug raid.<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar and his Vietnamese
\ncounterpart, Nguyen Dy Nien, led their delegations in the two-day
\ntalks, which finish Saturday.<\/p>\n
Syed Hamid told reporters that the Malaysian government
\nwouldn't impose any stringent conditions in recruiting the
\nVietnamese workers.<\/p>\n
One of Asia's richest countries, Malaysia has nearly 770,000
\nregistered foreign workers, among them 566,000 Indonesians. There
\nare also hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly from
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
Police and soldiers launched a massive operation last week to
\nclear out illegal immigrants from Indonesia and the Philippines
\nin the eastern state of Sabah. More than 1,500 have been
\ndeported.<\/p>\n
Malaysia revamped its policy on foreign workers after the
\nJanuary riot and decided to limit workers from different
\ncountries to defined sectors. Indonesians are now confined to
\nplantation or domestic work.<\/p>\n
The government has said it will begin sourcing workers from
\nother Southeast Asian countries and Central Asia. Unskilled
\nworkers would have to leave after five years.<\/p>\n
Syed Hamid also said that Malaysian businessmen investing in
\nVietnam faced problems with complex regulations, and that
\nplantation companies had difficulties securing the long leases on
\nland needed to recoup their investments.<\/p>\n
Nguyen promised to look into the complaints and said that
\nVietnam - one of the poorest countries in Asia - looked forward
\nfor greater economic ties with Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Malaysia is Vietnam's 13th largest foreign investor, with 94
\nprojects worth more than US$1 billion, mainly in oil and gas,
\nhotels and manufacturing.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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