PUTRAJAYA — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has instructed the Human Resources Ministry to immediately process the first 15,000 foreign worker applications to address urgent manpower shortages across key economic sectors.
Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil announced the directive during a post-Cabinet press briefing on Wednesday (Aug 5), noting that the Cabinet had reviewed ongoing recruitment bottlenecks affecting local industries during its weekly meeting.
“The Prime Minister has asked the Human Resources Ministry to immediately process the first 15,000 foreign worker applications,” Fahmi said. “This is to meet workforce requirements in the sectors involved and directly support economic activities in the country.”
Consolidation of Foreign Worker Quota Management
The directive comes shortly after a major policy restructuring intended to streamline Malaysia’s foreign labor recruitment pipeline.
On July 6, Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri R. Ramanan announced that his ministry had assumed full control over foreign worker quota management, following a Cabinet decision on July 1 to centralize the framework.
Ramanan stated that consolidating quota management under a single authority was designed to eliminate bureaucratic overlaps, strengthen recruitment governance, and ensure that industry workforce demands are met systematically.
Surge in Employer Applications
The immediate processing quota addresses a growing backlog of industry requests following the central agency transition.
As of July 6, the Human Resources Ministry had received 22,476 quota applications submitted by 548 companies seeking foreign labor allocations. The initial release of 15,000 approvals aims to provide rapid operational relief while the ministry processes the remaining pool of pending applications.
