02/02/2010 (The Star Online), Kota Kinabalu - Oil palm players must make a concerted effort to employ locals to overcome their dependence on foreign labour instead of just focusing on profits.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said they should hire and train more locals to be involved in one of the country’s biggest revenue earners.

“Plantation owners should not just focus on profits. They should provide more facilities and a better wage structure to attract local workers,” he said when opening a workshop on Palm Industry Labour Issues, Performances and Sustainability here yesterday.

Dompok said although the Government was fully aware of the industry’s grouses about a labour shortage, it should bear in mind that foreign workers would not be available indefinitely.

He said oil palm companies employed 325,074 workers in 2000, increasing by 88% to 610,135 in 2008.

“Plantations directly employed 376,906 foreign workers,” he said during the brainstorming session organised by the Malay-sian Palm Oil Board on plans to resolve issues facing the industry.

On producing green energy from biomass, Dompok said the board was carrying out a study for the Government to adopt a policy. “It should be ready in two months,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was committed towards developing green energy as indicated by Malaysia at last year’s Copenhagen summit on climate change.

One idea being mooted was for palm oil mills to play a dual role as an independent power producers of green energy from effluents such as biogas and other biomass.