KUCHING, Feb 4: State Border Security Committee (SBSC)’s measures in effectively addressing the illegal immigrant issues, also need to be friendly and efficient to Sarawak business industries.
This was the view of Sarawak Business Federation (SBF) president Datuk Abang Abdul Karim Tun Openg when he pointed out that the industry players are the ones who will be hiring the foreign workers.
While expressing thanks to SBSC for including the federation in attending the stakeholders input meeting a few days back, he said SBF was given the opportunity to raise issues on behalf of the trade associations and business chambers.
In the meeting, SBSC chairman Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing said the committee has been tasked to come up with a proper mechanism to recruit foreign workers for the various industries in Sarawak.
He added the high demand for foreign workers is one of the reasons illegal immigrants have been attempting to sneak into Sarawak, so a more structured policy is to be formulated to allow foreign workers to enter the state in a legal and safe manner.
With regards to this, Abdul Karim, in a statement today, said he and his federation were on the side of the state government and he wished for more involvement in such engagements in future.
“The SBF is supportive of the new framework highlighted during the meeting and hopes that SBSC continues to engage with SBF and private sectors in ensuring not only a structured and safe policy but a framework that is efficient and taking into account of needs of private sectors.
“Now with clearly delineated immediate, short and long-term plans, I hope everything could be firmed up and formally adopted as policy very soon,” Karim remarked. — DayakDaily
