KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 ― Malaysia must take immediate action to resolve the sharp shortfall in manpower across all sectors, Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng said today.
The former finance minister also said that the depreciating ringgit against two out of the country’s three largest trading partners is an ominous sign of flagging investor confidence in Malaysia’s economic prospects and could further impede post-pandemic recovery efforts if not addressed now.
“The immediate impact will be imported inflation, further increasing costs and prices both for businesses and consumers.
“Presently there is limited fiscal space available to the government to overcome these bleak inflation and currency numbers.
“Therefore, the government should utilise its policy latitude to generate much needed economic growth by resolving the acute labour shortage with a stroke of a pen,” he said in a statement.
Lim who is also DAP national chairman said the main problem was labour shortage, adding that solving it will immediately help to stem the economic slowdown and stop the ringgit slide.
He claimed that the ringgit fell to its lowest level against the Singapore dollar at RM3.22 today.
“There is an urgent need for the government to immediately resolve the acute labour shortage that has crippled production and caused businesses to reject new orders to help strengthen economic growth.
“A more robust growing economy will help to arrest the decline of the ringgit which depreciated to the lowest level ever against the Singapore dollar at RM3.22 today and a five-year low against the US dollar at RM4.46,” he said.
The federal Opposition MP also asked the Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan for an update to the recruitment of Indonesian workers, which Jakarta stopped abruptly earlier this month despite a bilateral memorandum of understanding signed back in March.
Lim noted that the latest sector to announce a hit on its recovery is the Malaysian Automotive Component Parts Manufacturers Association (MACPMA) which claimed labour shortages over the last two years have cost local makers some RM2 billion in exports yearly.
“MACPMA said a few days ago that the severe labour shortage is derailing the economic recovery of the motor auto parts industry which contributes 2 per cent to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP), causing stoppages and under-production as manufacturers are not able to produce at a higher capacity.
“This RM2 billion losses by the motor auto parts industry come on top of the RM31.5 billion in losses by the oil palm sector and glove industry which could have been overcome with a stroke of a pen by cutting through unnecessary red tape,” he said.
He added that the oil palm and glove manufacturers are anticipating losses of at least RM21 billion due to the worker shortage, after earlier losses estimated at RM10.5 billion between January and May.
“Even though Saravanan had announced that all matters were resolved with Indonesia, there is no confirmation from Hermono.
“With such a severe trust deficit between both countries, can Saravanan tell Malaysians when will Indonesian workers be returning back to Malaysia?” he asked.
Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia Hermono had accused Putrajaya of failing to honour the conditions for recruitment in the March MoU as the main reason for stopping its people from coming to work here.
