Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
Its executive director Datuk Dr Mohamed Ariff said although the economy was
growing at a healthy rate, it was not creating enough jobs.
<p>“There is a low correlation between gross domestic product (GDP) growth
and job creation. </p>
<p>“Last year the economy created 200,000 jobs fewer than in 2005,”
he said at Mier’s 12th regional corporate economic briefing here on Monday.
</p>
<p>He said this was mainly because the Malaysian economy was undergoing major
structural changes. </p>
<p>“We are moving away from a labour-intensive economy to one which is skill-
and knowledge-intensive. </p>
<p>“This is something we have to learn to live with and we will have to go
for quality in our workforce rather than quantity,” he said. </p>
<p>As such, he said skills upgrading would be very important for the workforce.
</p>
<p>Dr Ariff also said there was too much dependence on immigrant workers. </p>
<p>He said there were currently two million registered and 700,000 unregistered
foreign workers in the country. </p>
<p>“At the moment foreign workers account for about 20% of the total workforce.
By 2010 there will be more than five million foreign workers if this trend continues,”
he said.</p>
<p><i>Source: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/7/23/business/20070723154527&sec=business</i>
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