KUALA LUMPUR: Parliament was today told that the Human Resources Ministry has approved an employment quota of 995,396 foreign workers as of March 14.
Deputy Minister of Human Resources Mustapha Sakmud said of the total, the levy for 84.7 per cent of them had been paid by their respective employers.
"Employers are given up to 18 months to bring in foreign workers to Malaysia after paying the levy," he said during the question and answer session in Dewan Rakyat here today.
He was responding to a question from Chow Kon Yeow (Pakatan Harapan-Batu Kawan) who wanted to know the ongoing negotiations, as well as the completed ones and those still in the process, with potential countries to supply labour to the country.
Chow also asked on the number of workers expected to be brought in and the time needed to overcome the current labour shortage.
Mustapha said most of the quota approved were for workers in the manufacturing sector, followed by construction, services, plantations, agriculture, mining and quarrying.
He said so far, Malaysia had established labour cooperation for the recruitment and employment of foreign workers through memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with 10 source countries.
He also said only eight MoUs were in force, namely with Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan, Vietnam, Nepal and Cambodia.
He added that the MoUs with India and Sri Lanka had expired.
The ministry, he said, had finalised the MoU with the Indian government on March 13 and was expected to be signed before the end of the first quarter of this year. --Bernama