Plantation Industry
Needs To Adopt Greater Mechanisation As Way Forward
KUCHING, Nov 24 (Bernama) -- About 350,000
workers or 78 per cent of the workforce in the plantation sector nationwide are
foreigners, says Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Douglas
Uggah Embas.
Given the lack of interest among locals to work in the plantation sector, and the government's drive to reduce dependency on foreign workers, he said the way forward for the plantation industry was to undertake greater mechanisation and automation.
He said with greater uptake and adoption of mechanisation, the plantation industry needed to restructure its operations as it would then employ fewer low-skilled workers, and required more high-skilled workers to operate the machinery.
"While I am optimistic that the mechanisation and automation will greatly help reduce the dependency on foreign labour, it has to go in tandem with a well-planned and coordinated programme, as well as strong commitment by the management of plantation and industries to improve productivity of their workers," added Uggah.
He said this in a speech read by the ministry's secretary-general, Datuk Himmat Singh at the opening of the 4th International Plantation Industry Conference and Exhibition (IPiCEX2014) here, Monday.
Uggah said the plantation sector in Malaysia had evolved from merely producing and exporting primary raw materials to producing the semi-processed, processed and finished product, generating more value-added products to meet the growing world demand.
He said presently, Malaysia's commodity-based products were exported to more than 200 countries over the world, contributing to more than RM141 billion in export earnings in 2011.
"To progress further, the sector has to move up the value-chain by venturing into the production of high value-added products, and in this regard, the players are encouraged to adopt new technologies, undertake innovations and enhance commercialisation of research and development efforts," he noted.
"With such efforts, it is strongly believed that the target of achieving RM242.6 billion in export earnings from commodity-based products by 2020 as envisaged in the National Commodity Policy can be realised," said Uggah.
He noted that the palm oil sub-sector was one of the key sectors targeted to contribute towards economic transformation in the nation into a high income country by 2020.
He said the palm oil industry in Malaysia currently covered a planted area of about 5.3 million hectares representing 16.6 per cent of total land use in the country, with total exports in 2013 valued at RM63.2 billion.
-- BERNAMA
Given the lack of interest among locals to work in the plantation sector, and the government's drive to reduce dependency on foreign workers, he said the way forward for the plantation industry was to undertake greater mechanisation and automation.
He said with greater uptake and adoption of mechanisation, the plantation industry needed to restructure its operations as it would then employ fewer low-skilled workers, and required more high-skilled workers to operate the machinery.
"While I am optimistic that the mechanisation and automation will greatly help reduce the dependency on foreign labour, it has to go in tandem with a well-planned and coordinated programme, as well as strong commitment by the management of plantation and industries to improve productivity of their workers," added Uggah.
He said this in a speech read by the ministry's secretary-general, Datuk Himmat Singh at the opening of the 4th International Plantation Industry Conference and Exhibition (IPiCEX2014) here, Monday.
Uggah said the plantation sector in Malaysia had evolved from merely producing and exporting primary raw materials to producing the semi-processed, processed and finished product, generating more value-added products to meet the growing world demand.
He said presently, Malaysia's commodity-based products were exported to more than 200 countries over the world, contributing to more than RM141 billion in export earnings in 2011.
"To progress further, the sector has to move up the value-chain by venturing into the production of high value-added products, and in this regard, the players are encouraged to adopt new technologies, undertake innovations and enhance commercialisation of research and development efforts," he noted.
"With such efforts, it is strongly believed that the target of achieving RM242.6 billion in export earnings from commodity-based products by 2020 as envisaged in the National Commodity Policy can be realised," said Uggah.
He noted that the palm oil sub-sector was one of the key sectors targeted to contribute towards economic transformation in the nation into a high income country by 2020.
He said the palm oil industry in Malaysia currently covered a planted area of about 5.3 million hectares representing 16.6 per cent of total land use in the country, with total exports in 2013 valued at RM63.2 billion.
-- BERNAMA
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