PUTRAJAYA, March 18 — The quota application and approval for foreign workers including through the Foreign Worker Employment Relaxation Plan (PKPPA) has been postponed beginning today until a date to be announced later.

Human Resource Minister V. Sivakumar said the decision was made after the ministry approved a total of 995,396 employment quotas for foreign workers from various sectors as of Tuesday (March 14).

He said that the number of quota approvals had taken into account foreign worker quota applications that were normally processed and through the PKPPA which includes five critical sectors, namely manufacturing, construction, plantation, agriculture and services (restaurants only).

"The approval of the foreign worker quota so far is expected to be able to meet the needs of foreign labour by industries, including in critical sectors,” he said in a statement today.

In addition, he said the postponement was to ensure that employers who were given quota approval to start making plans for the immediate entry of foreign workers.

"I urge all employers who have the approval to speed up the process of hiring the workers during this period of time.

"The number of foreign workers coming in is still low compared to the number of quotas that have been approved by the ministry,” he added. — Bernama