M'SIAN GOVT APPROVES FOREIGN WORKER APPLICATIONS DUE TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY

NILAI (Malaysia), Feb 9 (Bernama) -- The malaysian government's decision to
approve 100,000 applications from new foreign workers to work in the country
over the past five months was made to meet the demand from manufacturers
following the global economic recovery.

Human Resources Minister Dr S.Subramaniam said today that this was
because during the global economic downturn, most factory workers had been laid
off while 600,000 out of 2.2 million foreign workers in the country were
deported to their countries of origin.

"When the economy recovered, the companies needed their workers back and
they made an application, which the government approved to enable them to resume
operations," he told reporters here Tuesday.

He said the decision was made after giving much consideration to various
aspects, including foreign investment, the opportunity to create more jobs for
local people and also the opportunity for support service.

"That is why the government, despite the policy to reduce the number of
foreign workers, had to be very careful to ensure that the decision does not
affect other issues," he said.

Subramaniam also said that the new intake did not involve Bangladeshi
workers as recruitment of workers from Bangladesh remained frozen.
-- BERNAMA