THE Sarawak government has been urged to take immediate steps to aid the business sector.
Alluding to the employment of foreign workers, Chong Chieng Jen (DAP-Padungan) said the state government should ease its process and expedite the approval of applications submitted by employers.
“According to the statistics from the Labour Department, at the moment, the foreign workers working in Malaysia are half the number of foreign workers before the pandemic.
“I am unsure of the specific figure for Sarawak, but there is definitely a lot of red tape in the process of applying for the permission to employ foreign workers,” he said during debate time at the August House on Monday (May 23).
Chong pointed out that some employers had to wait for months for their applications to be approved.
“If we want our business sector and our economy to recover, I think the state government has a part to play to ease whatever procedures that are required and simplify the process for employers to get foreign workers to help in their businesses, including the plantation, construction and the food and beverage sectors, among others.”
He pointed out that the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government was in an advantageous position to relax the procedures. “It is only a matter of whether there is a will to do it. Where there is a will, there is a way.”
Chong also urged the state government to emulate Putrajaya in allowing contractors working on state projects to submit a variation of costing to increase the awarded prizes of the projects based on the increase of the prices in the raw materials to be used.
“For state government projects, there should be leeway given to the contractors to allow them to submit for the variation of their costs to the relevant authorities to ease their trouble in raw material price hikes so that they can complete their jobs and aid the country’s economic recovery.”
