Language rules developed

The Malaysian government will impose a language requirement on all foreign workers making it compulsory for the migrants to be proficient in either the native Malay language or English, a minister said yesterday.

Human resources minister Fong Chan-onn said that workers would be required to undergo language courses from their countries of origin before being allowed to work in Malaysia.

Fong said the foreigners must now be able to understand or speak either one of the two languages in order to help in communication with local employers.

"Before we sign the government-to-government labour intake agreement with any country, they would be first required to educate their workers in terms of language and this would be made a prerequisite," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

"Not only would it help local employers but also assist these workers get on with their day-to-day activities," he said.

In February, the government imposed a ban on hiring Indonesians to work in the construction sector following two riots by Indonesian workers. The ban was reversed in August in a move to fill a labor shortage and Indonesians were allowed to be hired along with workers from other countries like Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and Turkmenistan.