KL seeks Bangladeshis to avert estate workers squeeze

Bangladeshi workers are seen at Zia International Airport in Dhaka March 16, 2009. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 ― A Malaysian delegation will visit Dhaka tomorrow to discuss bringing back Bangladeshis to work in various industries, particularly the palm oil plantation sector now facing a shortage of workers and competition from Indonesia that could affect the country’s economic performance, officials say.

Putrajaya barred entry to Bangladesh manpower nearly five years ago but is in dire need of foreign workers, including 40,000 just for the palm oil plantation sector to harvest the ripe fruit bunches in order to achieve the 19.3 million tonnes of oil output target this year.

Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri S. Subramaniam will head a Malaysian delegation for talks in Dhaka tomorrow, bringing along employers and Home Ministry officials to determine re-opening the labour market to Bangladeshi workers.

An estimated US$3 billion in potential earnings is being left unpicked on oil palm trees. — Reuters pic

Bangladesh Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) director-general Shamsun Nahar told bdnews24.com last week that the Malaysian delegation wants to see recruitment procedures before making a final decision and signing a pact for workers. Malaysia now recruits manpower from 13 countries.

Bangladesh officials hope to send some 500,000 workers to Malaysia once the pact is signed. Despite halting Bangladeshis from getting work permits since October 2007, Bangladesh officials said records showed 742 Bangladeshi workers had gone to work in Malaysia in 2011. The ban on Bangladeshi workers is the second implemented, with the first being in 1999.

Before that, 131,000 workers took up jobs in Malaysia in 2008, down from the 273,000 workers who came in 2007.

Subramaniam had previously said Putrajaya wanted to cut down the role of middlemen as well as combating fraud middleman activities.

“Bangladesh has approached us to send their workers to our country. Industries also are asking us to open up because of the shortage of workers. Once we have put the mechanism right, then we can decide whether to open up or not,” he said last month, adding there are now some 200,000 Bangladeshi workers in the country.

The local palm oil industry had warned that Malaysia is already losing billions of ringgit in palm oil exports because there is not enough foreign workers to harvest fruit bunches.

“Current planting materials are already capable of producing six tonnes per hectare in a year, but the country’s annual oil yield average is still stuck at four tonnes per hectare,” IOI Corp Bhd executive chairman Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng said at the sidelines of an industry forum recently.

“If the government approves of another 40,000 foreign workers, we can reduce wastage and surpass the 19.3 million tonne output target easily,” Lee was quoted as saying in a news report.

Palm oil industry experts said a five per cent wastage or loss of a million tonnes of crude palm oil works out to five million tonnes of fruit bunches left rotting across the country’s oil palm plantations.

At a conservative pricing of RM3,000 per tonne, it translates into at least RM3 billion loss in export opportunity and millions of ringgit in tax loss to the federal and state governments, they said.

The sector used to rely on Indonesian workers but most have stayed back in their country, which is now a major palm oil producer and has been aggressive with tax cuts to promote the industry.

In Malaysia, many planters have resorted to mechanising agricultural practices and offer better wages in the estates but the jobs are shunned by locals.