The government has not finalised the recruitment process for domestic maids from Indonesia and discussion on the matter with the Indonesian government is still on-going.

Human Resource Deputy Minister Ismail Abdul Mutalib said several aspects still needed to be studied before the process could be finalised to ensure that the maids supplied would meet the criteria and needs of Malaysian society.

“We want maids who are of quality, are healthy, fit, skillful and hardworking and with some education to be supplied to this country to avoid any undesirable incidents.

“This is because there have been a lot of negative reports on Indonesian domestic maids who created problems for their employers by abusing the latter’s children, stealing things and running away from their employers.”

Ismail said this after an aid-presentation ceremony and the honouring of 240 excellent students from Maran in the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) and Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR), at Dewan Jubli Perak Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah in Maran today.

In another development, he said the government needed about six million skilled workers by 2020 to meet the country’s employment market requirement.

He said currently, only 28 percent or 3.6 million of the 13.2 million workers in the country were skilled ones, with about 1.4 million of them in the public sector.

In light of this, Ismail urged school leavers and youths to take up skills training offered by the government to meet the employment market demand and to reduce the country’s dependence on skilled foreign workers.

- Bernama