Its chief executive officer, Felix Moh, said these approaches were:

• Directly negotiating with the company’s Indonesian counterpart to resume sending workers to Sarawak;
• Expediting the recruitment of workers from other source countries; and
• Cutting red tape by reducing the processing time for foreign worker recruitment.

“There is still no sign of a rebound in the intake of foreign workers,” Moh was quoted by Borneo Post as saying.

He said this was despite the federal government lifting travel restrictions after two years of repeated lockdowns, and the implementation of the RM1,500 minimum wage.

He said the new minimum wage, which was hoped to encourage local residents to take up jobs in the various sectors, had not seen an “immediate result”.

Moh also said there were signs the Indonesian government would continue to restrict sending workers to Malaysia.

“Like all sectors, Soppoa remains unclear of its prospects in terms of the availability of foreign workers,” he said.

He said although the federal plantation industries and commodities ministry and the human resources ministry had agreed to fast-track the recruitment of 32,000 foreign workers to Peninsular Malaysia, “the Sarawak oil palm industry is not part of the equation”.

“The Sarawak oil palm industry was short of 45,000 workers last year and this figure has increased,” he said.