Dialogues are ongoing to persuade plantation owners to employ all locals
Datuk Bolhassan Di
SIBU: About 3,000 local workers are expected to be recruited for the development of 20,000 hectares of oil palm in Beting Maro constituency.
Beting Maro assemblyman Datuk Bolhassan Di revealed this yesterday after officiating at 1Malaysia Youth Recreational Camping at Kemuyang Youth Camp in Betong.
He said he had dialogues with the plantation owners to encourage them to employ locals.
“At the moment, 300 local workers are already there, and as the plantation matures it will need more workers.
“Eventually, there will be 3,000 workers and we will see that all of them are Sarawakians,” he said.
According to him, about 12 per cent of the plantation has already matured and the developer Tabung Haji and Pelita have contributed to the success.
Bolhassan revealed that his constituency introduced a unique policy under the Native Customary Rights (NCR) land development in which the people could receive immediate benefit from it.
“Under the development concept, the land owners would receive dividends straight away without having to wait for the trees to bear fruit or pay for the loans, and so on,” he said.
“I want to make sure that the people get immediate benefits,” he said.