KUCHING, Dec 24: Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers’ Association (Sheda) Kuching chairman Sim Kiang Chiok welcomes the rehiring of foreign workers as the local workforce is not attracted to 3D (Dirty, Difficult and Dangerous) jobs in the state.
He said there is high demand for foreign workers in oil palm plantations, construction sites and as house maids, but these are not first employment choices of local people, and the reskilling of local workers will also take time.
With safe and tested foreign workers coming into the state, he expressed certainty the said rehiring would help the economy to recover by slowly restoring Sarawak’s human resources capacity back to the pre-Covid-19 stage.
“The government is also pump-priming the economy with various initiatives including infrastructure and construction works.
“The developers will be able to engage more contractors with these workers to restore the capacity to build houses to keep up with the eventual demand especially in the affordable housing segment,” he said in a statement today.
Sim expressed belief that it is time to start planning for the recovery of Sarawak’s economy since there is hope in sight for the Covid-19 vaccine which is expected to be available in February 2021 as announced by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.
In the meantime, he reminded Sarawakians, always comply with the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
“We can start to plan for the recovery in our economy as our government will vaccinate 70 to 80 per cent of about 32 million population over the course of next year.
“Until the vaccination program is fully completed, there are still risks of having further spikes in infections and lockdowns to be implemented, so we still need to observe the SOPs of washing our hands, wearing our masks and observing social distancing,” Sim added. — DayakDaily
