KUCHING, July 26 (Bernama) -- The Plantation Industries and CommoditiesMinistry is looking into the possibility of setting up a traininginstitute to develop a good pool of local expertise and to reducedependency on foreign labour in the palm oil industry.

Its minister, Datuk Peter Chin, said that the ministry would initiate theproposed programme or work closely with other government agencies and theprivate sector to provide training in plantation skills for schoolleavers.

"There is a need for this type of people as the industry expands. A lot ofour planters are also getting older...they have to retire so some peoplemust come in and take over," he told reporters after opening a seminar on"Enhancing the Sarawak Palm Oil Industry" organised by the Malaysian PalmOil Promotion Council (MPOPC) here Monday.

About 200 participants from the palm oil industry as well as prospectiveinvestors are attenting the seminar to create greater awareness andunderstanding of the current issues and challenges faced by it and explorefurther initiatives in planning its future direction.

He said that the ministry was looking into offering diploma or evendegree-level training at the proposed institute of higher learning toattract the local labour force to work in the plantations, which offerattractive remunerations.

At present, the MPOPC was also conducting similar programmes to raiseawareness on career oportunities in the industry, including manufacturingand marketing, with 8,000 secondary students nationwide being taken onfamiliarisation tours this year, he said.

Chin said that lectures were also being given to doctors and medicalstudents on the health and nutritional aspect of palm oil.

He said labour scarcity was a big worry for the government as the industryrelies heavily on foreign labour, which accounts for 70 per cent or350,000 of the total labour force at present.

As such, he said, there was a need to strike a balance between goodagricultural practices, through mechanisation, and prudent management offoreign labour for land-clearing, planting and harvesting.

On Malaysian planters venturing overseas, he said that the country had thenecessary expertise and technology with Indonesia as the main target.

Earlier, he said that there was a bright future for the industry despitefacing pressures from certain environmental non-governmental organisationsbehind the so called "sustainable production of palm oil."

"From time to time, we hear various groups spreading malicious rumourssaying Malaysia is destroying vast tracts of tropical rainforest to giveway to oil palm plantations," he said.

He said Malaysia, which recorded an impressive total export revenue ofRM26.15 billion last year compared to RM19.64 billion in 2002, shouldwiden its potential market such as in Africa and West Asian countries inefforts to enhance competition and become the leading palm oil supplier.

On the industry's development in Sarawak, he said that the state plans todouble its current total cultivated area to 1 millon hectare by 2010.

At present, Sabah, which has over 1 million hectare under palm oilcultivation, was the biggest producer while those in the peninsula weremore or less saturated already, he said.

-- BERNAMA