JAKARTA - Indonesia is targeting an October signing of an updated migrant-worker MoU with Malaysia, with technical talks targeted for completion in September.

Migrant Worker Protection Minister Mukhtarudin set out the timetable after accompanying Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka at a Sept. 17 meeting with Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi at the Vice Presidential Palace in Jakarta.

The Migrant Worker Protection Ministry said technical discussions were targeted to finish in September, followed by a high-level meeting in October as a stage toward signing the updated agreement.

Mukhtarudin asked Zahid to support faster finalisation and said the proposed update would strengthen placement and protection arrangements covering formal and informal workers.

The Vice Presidential Secretariat said the meeting also discussed opportunities to increase formal-sector placement quotas, with Indonesia seeking wider access to jobs requiring medium and high skills. Gibran also called for stronger protection for Indonesians working in Malaysia.

The negotiations follow earlier commitments to revisit bilateral labour arrangements.

In a July 2025 joint statement, President Prabowo Subianto and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim agreed to review the countries’ 2004 MoU on Recruitment of Indonesian Workers, including consideration of a mechanism to address issues affecting Indonesian migrant workers more comprehensively.

A separate 2022 MoU governs the employment and protection of Indonesian domestic migrant workers in Malaysia. The July 2025 leaders’ statement discussed implementation of that agreement separately from the review of the countries’ 2004 recruitment MoU.

Malaysia remains one of Indonesia’s most important overseas job markets. KP2MI said it recorded 22,915 placement services to Malaysia from January through April 2026. By June, Indonesia was already seeking to accelerate an agreement covering recruitment and placement of Indonesian formal-sector workers in Malaysia.

Mukhtarudin said Zahid responded positively to the latest push.

“The Malaysian deputy prime minister welcomed our initiative to renew the MoU and stated that he would coordinate with his officials to accelerate the process,” ANTARA quoted him as saying.