KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4: The Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has applauded Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s announcement today that the freeze on the foreign workers intake for the three sub-sectors of barbers, goldsmith and textiles since 2009 will be partially lifted.
The move is timely and it has been 14 long years of struggle for industry members who had been affected by the freeze to the point of closing down their businesses, said KLSICCI President Nivas Ragavan in a statement today.
He said the move would protect and safeguard the traditional Indian businesses being operated for few generations in Malaysia.
Recalling the Covid-19 pandemic period and the Movement Control Order, he said the three subsectors were among the businesses severely impacted due to the continuous closure of their outlets for at least 6 months.
“Many SMEs from these subsectors had to close down their operations because they were unable to cope with the unbearable operational expenses ( OPEX) and couldn’t resuscitate their businesses back post Covid-19.”
KLSICCI along with the relevant trade associations had continued to engage with the previous and current governments to address the issues faced by the sector, adding that the sectors were unfairly frozen in 2009 and further reinforced in a Cabinet decision in 2020 without proper consultation with the industry .
Thanking the prime minister and also Human Resources Minister V.Sivakumar, Nivas said Sivakumar had worked tirelessly to resolve as many issues as possible faced by the industries due to a shortage of workers.
“KLSICCI would like to also thank Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry (KPDN), the regulatory agency (Agensi Kawal Selia) which conducted the engagement sessions recently with the chambers and trade associations concerned to get valuable feedback and understood the real needs of these three services sub-sectors.”
Nivas also put on a record a special appreciation to the late Minister of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living, Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub, for having led his ministerial team in the assessment and evaluation of the concerns of the three sectors.
— WE