Japan Might Withdraw Investment From Malaysia Because of Worker Shortage

Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia Masahiko Horie said that if Malaysia could not improve the situation on the shortage of foreign workers Japanese firms might be forced to withdraw their investment from Malaysia and moved to countries with cheaper and ample labors. He pointed out that the shortage of foreign workers and skilled workers in Malaysia has become Japanese firms' biggest problems. The Japanese investors in Malaysia were disturbed by the situation.

Freezing Intake of Foreign Workers
In 2009, Japan was Malaysia's leading manufacturing sector. Japan has injected a total of $ 7.41 billion ringgit in Malaysia. However, if Malaysia still cannot resolve the shortage of manpower problem, it will be difficult for me to guarantee that this investment figure can be maintained or even improved.

Horie said the shortage of workers began to surface after the Malaysian Government implemented the new foreign work policy by freezing the intake of foreign workers.

Business Transformation Suffers Setback
Ambassador Horie said that in recent years, the short supply of workers was indeed quite a big problem for Malaysia. He said the Japanese enterprises in Malaysia faced not only their respective restructuring and upgrading struggle; the Japanese firms' daily operations were also affected by the shortage of workers.

In September 2009, a Japanese firm carried out an open recruitment for 400 factory operators. After making great effort, the firm only managed to recruit 300 operators. In this regard, the productivity of the firm naturally suffered a severe blow. What is more, as far as I know, almost Japanese firms in Malaysia are also facing similar problems.

Facing Dilemma Money
The aforementioned phenomenon affects not only the Japanese companies. Other foreign-owned factories are also faced with this dilemma of they have the money but they cannot find worker situation.

Horie reminded that as far as Malaysia's domestic economic development, was concerned, having abundant manpower and human resources and having workers with ungraded skills have become an urgent issue for the Malaysia to resolve. The authority concerned should not take such a shortage of workers issue lightly.