Govt To Give Flexibility For IDR Investors To Hire Foreign Workers

Govt To Give Flexibility For IDR Investors To Hire Foreign Workers

JOHOR BAHARU, Jan 30 (Bernama) -- The government will give flexibility to foreign companies investing in various sectors in the Iskandar Development Region (IDR) to hire foreign workers, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho said today.

"The government will give special consideration to the foreign companies but still it will follow the guidelines stipulated for the applications to hire foreign workers," he said after launching a briefing on opportunities for small & medium industries (SMIs) here.

Consideration will be given to sectors such as manufacturing, construction and services that need highly skilled workers, he added.

Tan described the special consideration as an incentive for foreign investors to come to the southern corridor development region.

On the briefing, Tan said SMIs can play a supporting role to the foreign investors as they have contributed 99.2 percent in total business investments in the country.

"They also represent 65 percent of the total workforce and contribute some 32 percent of the country's GDP," he said.

He felt that SMIs need to be briefed thoroughly on the roles they could play and how to participate aggressively to make the IDR a success.

SMI Association of Malaysia president Chua Tiam Wee said the IDR has piqued the interest of its members, especially those in Johor, but claimed that while "we have heard so much about it, we've not got any information on how to participate, which areas that we can participate in and what the incentives are for us."

Firsthand information on the IDR will help them to make a contribution towards the success of the southern corridor, apart from helping themselves to play a greater role in the global business arena, he added.

Giving the briefing to some 250 SMI representatives from Johor, Melaka and Kuala Lumpur were officials of the Iskandar Regional Development Authority and UEM Land Sdn Bhd.

They were later taken to Nusajaya for an on-site explanation of the key and future development projects in IDR.

-- BERNAMA