Minister calls curb on labor drain

Minister calls curb on labor drain

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): A Malaysian minister has urged authorities to check a large labor drain to neighboring Singapore, saying some 200,000 locals travel there daily to work.

International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz as quoted in Monday's newspapers, called on the state government of southern Johor, bordering Singapore, to set up a task force to reverse the labor drain.

"We need to understand why Malaysians choose to migrate or commute daily to work in Singapore when job opportunities and career prospects are aplenty here," she was quoted as saying by The New Straits Times.

The outflow of local workers was forcing Malaysia to bring in workers from abroad, Rafidah said. Malaysia has some one million legal foreign workers and thousands of others who are not documented.