Human Resources Minister Steven Sim said the government has set the number of foreign workers in the country to not exceed 15 percent of the country’s total employment by the year 2025, till March 15, 2024, based on Malaysian Immigration Department records, the number of foreign workers employed in the country is 2,171,798.
Thus for now, the decision to freeze approval of new quotas will remain he said to a question posed by Bagan Member of Parliament Lim Guan Eng. Steven added the freeze was also because the number of foreign workers in the country has approached the target set below 12th Malaysia Plan and that the Government is still in the process to finalise the screening on Immigrants Without Permit under the Workforce Recalibration Program 2.0 (RTK) supervised by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The HR Minister also noted that any relevant decision on the re-opening of the foreign worker quota will be determined after the government gets full details on the total quota of foreign workers who have not yet entered the country before or on 31 May 2024 and the outcome of the Workforce Recalibration program which will end in June 2024. According to the Minister, based on the findings obtained from the Regulatory Agencies by sector, the estimated workforce required is 308,570. He added the new quotas will only be considered taking into account the balance the remaining quota from the projected 15 percent of the workforce after updating the number of active foreign worker quotas and RTK 2.0. Accordingly the balance will be channeled to critical sectors or sub-sectors and those that have high impact on the country’s economy.
Moving forward, Steven said the Government has prepared processes to facilitate easy and fast entry where the application and entry of workers. The new policy will start after the withdrawal of freezing of new quota approvals.
