Malaysia-Indonesia to sign PDI MoU this Friday

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia and Indonesia will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the employment and protection of Indonesian Domestic Servants (PDI) this Friday (April 1).

Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan said he would sign the MoU with his Indonesian counterpart, Minister of Manpower Ida Fauziyah in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Indonesian President Joko Widodo are expected to witness the MoU signing, he said in a statement here today.

Saravanan said the first PDI MoU, which expired in 2011, was signed in 2006, and it was renewed in 2016.

"However, after that period, the PDI MoU could not be renewed as no consensus was reached by the two countries," he said.

He said as of last February, there were 352,469 Indonesian workers in the country with 98,421 of them involved in the plantation sector followed by manufacturing (67,217), construction (65,660), domestic servants (58,438), agriculture (43,953) and services (18,779).

On March 15, Saravanan was reported to have said that the PDI MoU signing ceremony scheduled to take place on March 18 was postponed to April 1 to allow the two national leaders to be present to witness the event.

-- BERNAMA