Ministry Measures for Timber Industry

The Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities is taking measures to increase the number of local workers in the timber industry while cutting down its dependence on foreign labour, said its Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok."There are more than 300,000 workers in the industry and from this, 60 per cent are foreign workers," he said in his address during a gathering here to celebrate WISDEC (Wood Industry Skills Development Centre)'s Skills Day today.Dompok's text speech was delivered by the ministry's Deputy Secretary General (Commodities) M.Nagarajan.The minister said that through the set up of training centres like WISDEC, local workers can be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills so that they can be more efficient and productive in the production of timber products."In line with this, my ministry has set a target so that the total number of skilled workers in the timber industry can be increased from the present 28 per cent to 45 per cent by 2020, which will be in line with the country's developed status by then," he said.Dompok said the issue of skilled and innovative workers for the timber industry was very important to guarantee that the country's timber industry remained competitive in the world market.The National Timber Industry Policy has underlined a strategy for human capital development as one of the pre-requisites for pushing up the timber industry to a more higher level with exports value reaching RM53 billion by 2020.Dompok said the higher export value target was not only based on a higher quantity but would have to be backed by higher quality.Towards this, WISDEC here and in Sabah have trained about 7,000 people in the various aspects of skills required for the timber industry.This is not sufficient yet and in order to increase the number, the ministry is also working with the vocational and technical education department of the Education Ministry to prepare a curriculum involving form four students in the vocational schools, Dompok added.