KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Malaysia will not impose any
extra conditions on workers from Vietnam apart from the existing
requirements imposed on all foreign workers, Foreign Minister Syed
Hamid Albar said Friday.
   "I think there should not be any discriminatory measures, they
would follow measures which are followed by all the foreign
workers in Malaysia and all workers are subjected to Malaysian
laws," he said.
   The minister was speaking to the media after the third meeting
of the Joint Commission between Malaysia and Vietnam. Also present
at the meeting was Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien.
   He said it would be unfair for Malaysia to impose added
conditions on workers from certain countries, as "workers are
workers and as long as they comply with the country's laws, why
should Malaysia impose burden on them ?"
   Syed Hamid said now Vietnamese workers were being recruited by
employment agencies and those recruited would definitely be those
looking for jobs and have specific skills to work here.
   "Vietnam is now a stable country with rapid economic growth and
they have the labour which we need but it should be emphasized
that everyone who comes into this country is subjected to
Malaysian laws and so they have to make sure they comply with
these laws," he said.
   Malaysia is revising its policy on recruitment of foreign
workers after occurrences of Indonesian workers rioting in past
several months. 
   Meanwhile in his speech at the Joint Commission meeting, he
said Malaysia hoped to be able to explore new areas of
collaboration in various fields to bring forward relationship
between the two countries to a higher phase.
   He said Malaysia noted that Vietnam had revised its laws to
promote and encourage foreign investment in the country.
   Malaysia is currently the 13th largest foreign investor in
Vietnam with a total investment of approximately 1.1 billion U.S.
dollars involving 49 projects. Some 70 Malaysian companies are now
operating in Vietnam in areas such as oil and gas, hotels,
manufacturing and the establishment of free trade zones.  Enditem