The human resources ministry said in a statement these matters were discussed in a meeting between minister M Saravanan and his Indonesian counterpart Ida Fauziyah in Jakarta today.

Among the issues that had been agreed on was a “One Channel System” for better monitoring of domestic workers in Malaysia.

Aside from that, the “one-maid, one-task” issue was also addressed through an agreement that one domestic worker would be placed for every household of not more than six people.

The ministers also agreed that the Malaysia-Indonesia technical committee meeting on the MoU would be held on Dec 14 to outline further details.

“This is so that both parties can come to an agreement so that the MoU on Indonesian domestic workers can be signed as early as January 2022.”

The ministry said the MoU needed to be expedited because Indonesia would only allow its citizens to enter Malaysia to work in the agricultural sector after it has been finalised.

Previously, Cabinet meetings on April 7 and Nov 12 agreed to allow the entry of foreign workers for the agricultural sector. Initially, the government had banned the intake of new foreign workers, including domestic workers, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The government has said the freeze on foreign workers will stay in place until the end of the year.