PETALING JAYA – Despite there is an increase of demand, the industry players dare not accept all business opportunities due to the lack of manpower.
The National Vice-President of SME Association Malaysia, Datuk Ada Poon Yin Hoong said that an instant noodle production company for example, receives order until end of the year, but it does not have sufficient manpower to fulfil the order.
She told Nanyang Siang Pau that despite the company offering up to RM2,000 to foreign workers, it still fails to hire anyone.
According to her, the similar situation happens in the restaurants and they find it difficult to employ dishwashers.
Although the minimum wage is RM1,200, the salaries of many foreign workers have reached RM1,800 to RM2,000 because the employers are competing to get manpower.
She said, if the minimum wage is increased to RM1,500, the employers may need to pay RM2,000 to RM2,500.
“Besides the lack of workers, supplies shortage, high salaries, logistics and transport issues often cause the businesses to fail in delivering according to schedule.
“Such problems affected business recovery,” she told the Chinese newspaper.
According to her, businesses are facing crisis, although the orderbook increases, they have shortage of certain raw materials and workers.
“The transportation cost has also increased and the business owners cannot predict the arrival of goods and materials imported overseas.
“In such uncertainties, we hope that the government can give assurance in providing clear operation procedures, ease the application of foreign workers and loosen the terms and conditions for business financing,” she said.
On the transformational efforts to reduce dependency on workers, Ada said that the situation cannot be implemented immediately as the purchase of machines require huge capital.
“We must remember that many businesses have lost their income for two years and they need to gather their capital first before any transformation,” she added. – MalaysiaGazette
