(AFP) Despite a rise in retrenchments, Malaysia is still reliant on foreign workers to fill up the 120,000 job vacancies available this year, a report said today.

Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn was quoted by the Sunday Star as saying that the vacancies, created in the first 11 months this year, exceeded the 38,484 workers retrenched in the same period.

"The irony is that while we are seeing a rise in workers retrenched, Malaysia still continues to be dependent on foreign workers," Fong said.

"About half (of the new vacancies) are in the plantation industry, while the other half are in manufacturing such as plastics, food and textiles."

Not interested

Although the government tried to cut reliance on foreign labour, he said employers continued to hire them because locals were not interested in the jobs.

Penang, which houses many electronic plants, has the highest number of retrencments totalling 12,273 in the first 11 months this year, mostly in the electronics sector.

The government announced last month it would cut the permit period for all foreign workers except domestic helpers from six or seven years to three years.

Electrical and electronics goods comprise about 60 percent of Malaysia's exports. Almost 21 percent of all Malaysia's exports go to the United States, making it vulnerable to the economic slowdown there.

The government has revised downwards its 2001 economic growth forecast to 1.0-2.0 percent because of the "greater-than-expected" slump in the world economy.