KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 8): There are a total of 1.99 million foreign workers in Malaysia currently registered under the Temporary Visiting Work Permit (Pas Lawatan Kerja Sementara) as at August 31 this year.

In Parliamentary written reply yesterday, the Ministry of Human Resources said based on Malaysia's immigration department’s statistics, the manufacturing sector employs the highest number of foreign labour, totalled at 706,502.

This is followed by the construction sector (429,552 people), plantation sector (268,203 people), agricultural sector (150,003 people), and household mail (130,450 people).

In line with the 11th Malaysia Plan, the ministry said the government aims to cap the employment of foreign labour below 15% of total workforce in the country by 2020, and various measures have been taken to reduce reliant on foreign workers.

The ministry was responding to Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir (PH-Johor Bahru), who asked the government to state the latest number of foreign workers in Malaysia and the target by the Ministry on the number of foreign workers needed in the labour industry in Malaysia.