This Content Is Only For Subscribers
By Wilfred Pilo
KUCHING, July 9: The Sarawak government will adopt a data-sharing approach to expedite applications for foreign workers’ permits and quotas, says Sarawak Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.
He said that the State government is hoping to have the new system of processing these applications ready in the next two months.
“Deputy Minister in the Premier of Sarawak’s Department (Labour, Immigration and Project Monitoring) Datuk Gerawat Gala’s ministry is given the task of monitoring this application process.
“Any interested parties can get more information on the process of this data-sharing from the ministry,” he said during ‘Sunday Morning with Premier 2.0: Dialogue Session With Young Entrepreneurs on New Economy’ at Imperial Hotel here today.
Organised by DayakDaily and Persatuan Wartawan Bebas Kuching (Pewarta), with the support of the Sarawak government, the Dialogue was attended by some 130 young entrepreneurs as well as top government officials and heads of departments.
During the dialogue, Migratesafe Employment Agency co-founder and operations director Daniel Ding Ken Ian asked about Sarawak government initiatives in implementing digital technologies in Labour Department procedures and approving labour quotas to speed up the process.
Abang Johari acknowledged labour and foreign worker shortages are common problems in all industries in the State with three departments involved in the time-consuming process of processing foreign labour applications.
“Firstly, the Labour Department may sit on the application based on the queue. After Labour (Department), the application will be referred to the Immigration (Department) to look into the details of the application before it goes to our committee under the State Secretary’s (SS) Office.
“You just imagine the time taken from one to another (department) may take three months, six months, even one year,” he said.
Due to this problem, he suggested using information technology to tackle the issue by having the applicants keying-in the necessary information and then, the data would be shared to all the departments involved.
“From there, you (the departments) can decide in a matter of one month or one week (before) the SS Office can issue the permit. Once that is done, then the decision is simultaneous,” he said.
Minister of Sports, Youth and Entrepreneur Development Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, Tebedu assemblyman Dr Simon Sinang Bada, Deputy Secretary (Economic and Development Planning) Datu Dr Muhammad Abdullah Zaidel and Sarawak Economic Planning Unit (EPU) director Lester Matthew were among those present.
In August last year, Abang Johari announced that the Sarawak government is working on a mobile application with common data services to eliminate bureaucracy while easing and expediting the process of applying for work permits for foreign workers. — DayakDaily
