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KUALA LUMPUR - WITH massive projects like the Iskandar Development Region (IDR) taking off, Malaysia may have to scale back efforts to weed out illegal foreign workers, industry players say.
Malaysia has been relying heavily on an army of foreign workers in jobs that locals shun, especially on construction sites and palm oil estates.
'The country is still dependent on foreign labour, especially in the construction sector,' Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn told The Straits Times.
Malaysia's workforce of 10.8 million is supplemented by two million foreign workers. About half of the migrant workers are here illegally.
But their increasing presence has raised the concerns of Malaysians, who blame them for criminal activities and taking away jobs in factories, which Malaysians are still keen on.
This has led the government to carry out large-scale operations to deport these illegal workers, officials say.
But the upcoming IDR in Johor and two other large project corridors might force the government to back down, experts say.
The IDR is an economic zone in southern Johor nearly three times the size of Singapore.
Malay Contractors Association president Roslan Awang Chik told The Straits Times that any drastic move to deport migrant workers would affect the economy due to the tight blue-collar labour market.
'Who is going to build the roads, the buildings and the infrastructure? How will the economy get moving?' he asked.
A sudden shortage of foreign workers would certainly hit Malaysia badly, economist Suhaimi Ilyas told Bloomberg recently.
For every 1 per cent increase in the number of legal overseas workers from 1998 to 2002, the economy expanded by 0.2 per cent, according to data from the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers.
The government expects total investments in the IDR to top RM16 billion (S$7 billion) in the next 10 to 15 years, including for roads, condominiums, malls and offices.
For the northern states, some RM10 billion worth of investments are expected a year over the next 18 years, officials say. These include investments for roads as well as large farm projects.
In the East Coast Development Corridor, investments of RM9 billion a year is expected over the next 12 years, including for giant petrochemical projects.
The Malaysian Employers Federation said the government's efforts to get rid of illegal foreign workers 'should be done with the overall health of the economy in mind'.
Datuk Fong said one way to cut reliance on foreign workers is higher automation in construction and plantations.
kumhor@sph.com.sg
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