Human Resources Minister Richard Riot is to find out why the Bangladesh workers have not left despite having been issued work permits by the Malaysian government months ago, Sin Chew Daily reported yesterday.

The workers are meant to help the local furniture manufacturing industry, which had suffered the biggest losses owing to the freeze in the intake of foreign workers by the government earlier this year.

The Chinese daily quoted Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Mah Siew Keong as saying that Riot will be going to Dhaka to see the situation first hand, because the government had granted approvals four to five months ago for furniture manufacturers to bring in these workers.

“Even after having paid the necessary levies, the workers have postponed their travel to Malaysia,” Mah said, according to Sin Chew.

He added that as a result, furniture manufacturers have had to turn down new orders from customers both locally and from overseas, with some of them having to shut down temporarily.

On Nov 2, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told the Dewan Rakyat that the inability to hire sufficient manpower saw the local furniture industry record RM6.7 billion in losses so far this year.

Many furniture companies, he explained, were unable to deliver their products for the international market on time.

“The furniture exporters signed agreements with foreign buyers but they cannot fulfil their obligations due to the insufficient workforce.

“I know that the furniture industry alone needs more than 8,000 Bangladeshi employees and they are waiting for the freeze on intake to be lifted due to production issues,” Zahid, who is also Home Minister, said in winding up the Budget 2017 debate for his ministry.