KUALA LUMPUR, April 29 — Putrajaya has approved the intake of 32,000 foreign workers for the plantation sector to boost Malaysia’s palm oil production after Indonesia banned exports last Thursday, according to a local industry player.

Malaysia Palm Oil Association chief executive officer Datuk Nageeb Wahab told The Star that a special task force to speed up the hiring of foreign workers has been formed following a multi-ministerial meeting last Wednesday.

"The task force would supplement the current One-Stop Centre headed by the Human Resources Ministry to expedite the hiring process,” Nageeb was quoted saying in the news report published today.

Nageeb said the meeting saw the participation of four ministries, listing Human Resources, Home, Health, Plantation Industries and Commodities, as well the Immigration Department, and major industry players IOI Plantation, KLK Plantation, Sime Darby Plantation and Boustead Plantation.

"We are not fully exploiting our advantage because we are short of workers. The government sees the urgency and has set up the task force purely to look at hiring guest workers here.

"For the plantation industry, the arrival of 32,000 workers will be fast-tracked.

"The government approved it eight months ago,” Nageeb, who reportedly attended the meeting, was quoted saying.

Nageeb also said that local plantation companies are hoping for Indonesian workers as they are skilled at harvesting.

He also told The Star that the government answered industry players’ concerns about the recruitment processes.

He was optimistic the labour issues will be addressed soon too.

Nageeb described Indonesia’s decision to stop exporting its palm oil products as a "boon” to Malaysia due to the increase in global crude oil prices.

"The only issue preventing us from fully exploiting the advantage is manpower shortages but the good thing is the government has fast-tracked the whole hiring process of us bringing in the workers,

"We expect the bulk of them to come after Hari Raya,” he was quoted as saying.

Nageeb said he does not believe Malaysia will face a domestic palm oil product shortage like Indonesia — which was why the republic decided to ban exports — as Putrajaya already subsidises cooking oil here.

Malaysia is the world’s second biggest producer of palm oil products after Indonesia.