Published: Sunday November 15, 2009 MYT 3:20:00 PM
Jobs aplenty in plantation sector
By JACK WONG
KUCHING: Many jobs are awaiting local takers in the managerial and supervisory levels of the plantation and primary commodity industries.
Deputy Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Hamzah Zainudin said employers had complained of shortage of workers, not only at the labourer level, but also at the supervisory level.
''These include managers, mechanics, electrical engineers and various jobs in administration and financial management,'' he added in a speech to launch a career talk and exhibition in the plantation and commodity industries at the Sarawak Tourism Complex here Sunday.
More than 200 youths attended the talk.
Hamzah's text of speech was read by the ministry's research, innovation and human resources division secretary Aknan Ehtook.
Saying that these supervisory posts should be fielded by the locals instead of foreigners, Hamzah urged local youths to come forward to be trained to take up the jobs.
He said the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), Malaysian Rubber Board and Malaysian Timber Industry Board had skills development programmes to train them for the jobs.
The MPOB, for example, offers a Diploma course in palm oil milling technology and management.
''The plantation and commodity sector now employs about 1.4mil workers or 12% of the country's total workforce.
''Malaysia exported RM112.4bil worth of palm oil, rubber products and timber, and furniture last year. This was an increase of 27% over RM89mil in 2007,'' he added.
Hamzah said although Malaysia had been a top exporter of rubber and palm oil for decades, Indonesia and Thailand had now overtaken the country in terms of the sizes of agricultural areas.
But in terms of productivity, he said Malaysia was still ahead.
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