Malaysia strengthens labour cooperation with Cambodia through signed MoUs

The two MoUs, regarding the employment of Cambodian workers in Malaysia's formal and domestic sectors, will remain in effect for five years.

Malaysia and Cambodia have signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) on the recruitment, employment, and repatriation of Cambodian workers in Malaysia's formal and domestic sectors.

The signing was witnessed by Prime Minister of Malaysia Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen, on 27 March during PM Anwar and Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar's visit to Cambodia.

In a statement, Minister Sivakumar said the MoUs will remain in effect for five years. Currently, there are 4,422 Cambodian Temporary Work Visit Pass (PLKS) holders, of which 923 are working as domestic sector workers. 

These two new MoUs, especially the one for the domestic sector, will give employers more options to employ domestic sector workers from Cambodia, apart from Indonesia and the Philippines, it was stated.

The first MoU for both sectors from Cambodia was signed on 10 December 2015, and ended on 9 December 2020.

In similar news, labour cooperation between Malaysia and Vietnam has continued to develop substantively. As spoken by the head of the labour management department for Malaysia's Vietnamese Embassy, Thai Phuc Thanh, Malaysia remains one of the top markets for Vietnamese unskilled workers — this is followed by Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan (China).

As cited in Bernama, he said: "Labour cooperation is always touched upon in most of the high-level meetings between the two countries, and closely linked to the interests of workers, businesses and development goals of each country.

"It is not only a bilateral cooperation, but also within the framework of ASEAN cooperation, the International Labour Organization (ILO), and trade agreements that both sides have joined."

Both governments signed the first cooperation agreement on this in 2003, which was then re-inked in 2015, and 2022.

Highlighting the benefits of labour cooperation agreements, Thanh affirmed that the agreements have helped create jobs and income for many Vietnamese workers. He further shared, according to Bernama, that there are currently over 12,300 Vietnamese labourers working in Malaysia, with the total income from 2010 to 2020 estimated at approximately S$1.5bn. 

Labour cooperation has also contributed to expanding economic, trade, tourism and investment cooperation between the two countries, he was further cited as saying. 

Lead image / Prime Minister of Malaysia Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim Facebook