Newspaper vendors in the country want the government to allow them to hire foreign workers as locals were not keen to work as vendors, said Federal Territory and Selangor Indian Newspaper Vendors Association president V Arumugam.

He said initially, they wanted to submit a proposal to the government to recruit 1,000 foreign workers to serve in the industry.

"Locals were not keen to wake up at 3 or 4am, this is tedious work, with many risks involved," he said at the 46th annual dinner of the association, in Petaling Jaya tonight.

Also present were Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department T Murugiah, Bernama editor-in-chief Yong Soo Heong and Zainol Arifin Mohammed Isa, the NSTP group managing director.

Arumugam said without foreign workers, vendors could close shop and this could have severe repercussion on the newspaper industry in the country.

He said they would be meeting Human Resource Minister Dr S Subramaniam to seek his ministry's support to hire foreign workers.

Meanwhile, Murugiah said he would support the proposal, adding that he would bring up the matter with Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

"Vendors are the backbone of the newspaper industry. I agree that not many locals want to work as vendors, it is really tough," he said.

- Bernama