COMMENT : Pure greed, corruption and incompetence are the main cause of our current predicament of having too many foreign workers .
Govt should do a thorough analysis on the pros and cons of having foreign workers…… ie what factors benefit the country and what are the ills of having too many of them.
In my opinion, only plantation sector brings the most value added………. It helps our export as most of them are exported. This not only bring us the much needed foreign exchange, it also provide the govt with huge taxes……furthermore , it entails working in very tough working environment and labour intensive and most Malaysians will shun away from these jobs.
Outdoor construction work is the other industry that can be considered as it again entails working in very tough conditions which locals will shun away.
I believe there could be about 5 million illegal and legal foreign workers in our country.
Assuming the minimum wage is rm1500 pm, the average foreign workers take home will be at least rm2000 pm when we include their O/T and the more experienced workers earning much more than rm2000pm.
Their total wages per month will be about rm7.5 billion pm or rm90 billion per year.
Assuming they send home 80% of their wages, that is rm72 billion leaving the country, thus one of the causes for the ringgit forever weakening in the long term.
This calculation did not include the amount that has to be paid to the ‘ agents’ in the respective foreign country…….. more ringgit will leave the country to pay these ‘agents’.
I personally feel our govt should do away with foreign workers in the hospitality industry……… foreign workers are everywhere from cheap mamak restaurants to the very up market restaurants, laundromats, security guards, etc. These industries do not earn our country much value added and foreign exchange. I am not surprise if the actual tax collection is also not much as many of these restaurants may not keep ‘proper’ accounts.
A simple audit on a mamak restaurant can be done to test my theory……. How much tax is actually collected from an average mamak restaurant that employs 20 workers………I am very sure the tax collected will not justify having so many foreign workers……of course cost of eating out will go up slightly without these foreign workers , but the benefits will far outweigh the cost for the country overall….
Factory is another area where we should either do away with foreign workers or reduce their employment as a % of overall workers in the factory………. If we continue depending on these ‘cheap’ foreign workers, employers will not be motivated to invest in technology and we will forever be a country of low cost, little value added production country and our people will never get out of the poverty trap and will forever depend on govt subsidies to survive.
I can talk about the cost and benefit of foreign workers for another 3 hours BUT will leave it for another time 😁
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