Malaysia, UK enter BWA allowing diplomatic spouses to seek employment
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia and the United Kingdom yesterday exchanged the Bilateral Work Arrangement (BWA) that allows spouses of both foreign service officers serving in Kuala Lumpur and London to undertake and seek employment opportunities.
Foreign Ministry secretarygeneral Datuk Seri Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob said the BWA was a bilateral arrangement that also enables diplomatic spouses from both countries to add value to their stay and contribute to the social and economic development.
“They now can search for prospective employment, not only to gain additional income but also add to their experience in work culture or continue and contribute their expertise that they have to leave behind due to the imposed employment restriction for diplomatic service spouses,” he said.
Muhammad Shahrul said this to reporters after exchanging of diplomatic notes on BWA with the British High Commissioner to Malaysia, Charles Hay, at Wisma Putra here yesterday. He said the BWA was another milestone to further enhance Malaysia and United Kingdom bilateral relations which already covers various areas of cooperation namely political and security, education, trade and economy, tourism and culture.
Muhammad Shahrul said the BWA with the United Kingdom was the sixth for Malaysia and the Malaysian government also hoped to enter into more of similar arrangements with other countries where Malaysia had its diplomatic and consular missions.
The first BWA exchanged was with the United States on April 24, 2014, followed by India and France on March 27, 2017, with Denmark on May 22 and with Australia on March 4 this year, he said.
Meanwhile, Hay said there were six diplomatic spouses with the British High Commission currently showing interest to seek employment in Malaysia mostly in professional sector namely laws, lecturing as well as interpreting and translating.