2010/05/10

By P. Chandra Sagaran

IPOH: Cameron Highlands farm owners want the authorities to review the policy to reduce the number of foreign workers in the country as the agriculture sector in the highlands is a niche market.

They are appealing to the government to allow the workers who have acquired certain skills to extend their work permit or else the country could lose them to Holland, the United States, Japan and Taiwan.

Under the policy, the government plans to reduce the current foreign labour workforce of 2.5 million to 1.8 million.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk S.K. Devamany said the authorities should take a second look at certain sectors of the agriculture industry.

"The foreigners working in the highlands will have to leave the country when their work permit expires. They will be lured by these countries while Cameron Highlands becomes a training ground," he said yesterday after attending Sri Murugan Centre's community empowerment programme and awards presentation ceremony here for students who excelled in the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah, Penilaian Menengah Rendah, Sijil Pelajaran Malaysian and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia examinations.

Devamany recently met 28 farmers organisations on the issue.

"A memorandum will be submitted to the Home, Agriculture and Agro-based and Human Resources ministries. An appeal will be made to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to consider the needs of the farmers," said Devamany, who is member of parliament for Cameron Highlands.

Foreign workers are trained in the field of fertigation, fertilisation and pesticide application. Many farms have also gone high tech and employees have had computer skills training.

"It takes at least two years to master the skills. As such, the foreign workers should be allowed to stay on for at least 10 years. We have to look along the lines of the New Economic Model transformation."

The niche sectors need 6,000 workers at any one time. There is a shortage of between 2,000 and 3,000 workers now.