KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Philippines – Authorities here told visiting officials from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) that Malaysia’s Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) is in need of some 40,000 workers in its expanding palm oil farms, and that Filipinos are given preference.

“It’s an amazing opportunity we must grab,” ARMM Executive Naguib Sinarimbo said of the news he and his entourage from Suhaimi Zainuddin, deputy director-general of FELDA’s administration and finance, in a meeting at the latter’s main headquarters here Wednesday.

Sinarimbo, who heads an eight-member opportunity-searching ARMM delegation, said Zainuddin also told them that FELDA has observed Filipino workers to be obedient and industrious, basic qualities the government-controlled agency-like company deemed befitting for settler-farming scheme.

Myrah Alih, ARMM labor secretary, said she was equally elated that the FELDA management expressed openness to accommodating workers from the autonomous region, a geo-political zone lagging in most development dimensions.

FELDA was established in 1956 originally to channel financial assistance to Malaysian state governments and later gained expanded authority in 1961 to implement land development programs throughout the country, according to the agency’s records.

As of this year, FELDA has developed 853,313-hectare farms planted to oil palm, rubber, sugarcane, and other value crops, setting aside additional 42,173-hectare as area for 112,635 settler-families involving some 1.6 million individuals, the records said.

Each of the settler-family, assigned with five-hectare farm each, received an average monthly income of 4,195 ringgits in rubber planting, and 3,419 ringgits in oil palm farming, FELDA statistics said.

In Philippine peso, according to Alih, the settler’s average income ranges from P700,000 and P800,000, a hefty amount several folds higher than the $400 minimum wage set for overseas Filipino workers.

Sinarimbo and Alih said they would immediately prepare documentations for the entry of workers from ARMM to the FELDA employment program upon their team’s return to the Philippines next week.

The ARMM delegation would meet Thursday human resources (labor) ministry officials here and then fly to Kuta Kinabalu for the enhancement of a trade venture they have established early this year.