Review foreign workers policies, tax system, create skilled workers, MEF tells Anwar

SHAH ALAM - Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) calls on rnewly appointed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to review foreign worker policies, tax system and create more skilled workers in the country.

Its president Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman said the move was critical in attracting high valued investors and to enable Malaysian businesses to be at par with the international markets.

He further said employers, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) required government's assistance in modernising and digitalising their processes.

“Modernisation of their processes and operations will enable the MSMEs to be more sustainable and competitive.

“While modernising the MSMEs processes and operations that will take a longer time to implement, the current issues on worker shortages especially foreign workers need to be addressed urgently,” he said in a statement.

Moreover, Syed Hussain further new policies should be formulated as employers face challenges and suffered losses due to shortage of foreign workers.

“With this in view MEF urges the prime minister and his government to urgently put in place new tax policies both at corporate and individual level to make it more attractive and competitive, especially comparing tax rates with the neighbouring Asean countries.

He further said Malaysia needs to increase the percentage of skilled workers which currently stands at less than 30 per cent as compared to developed countries skilled workers made up more than 50 per cent of the total workforce.

Increasing the skilled workers was critical in convincing investors that Malaysia has enough supply of skilled talent to meet the investors’ requirement, Syed Hussain added.

Therefore, he said MEF hopes the suggestion will be taken into account and views of stakeholders are taken into account before formulating new policies.