The chief executive of Malaysia's national oil company Petronas has hit out at the practice of Middle Eastern corporations 'poaching' trained workers from the country.

Speaking at a press conference where he reported on the company's performance over the past year, Tan Sri Mohd Hassan Marican argued that the practice of multinational firms signing up skilled workers is not merely restricted to Malaysia, but rather is a problem currently facing large parts of the Eastern Asia.

He added that, while Petronas reached an agreement five years ago with Western and multinational companies that they would not poach native workers, over recent years, this 'mutual respect' has not been observed by some Middle Eastern firms.

"We have said before that Middle Eastern companies need to invest in training their own people and stop poaching trained people from other companies," he concluded.

Presently, around 82 per cent of Petronas's 30,000 employees are Malaysian nationals working in both upstream and downstream projects across 30 countries.

Mr Hassan also reported that, should demand within Malaysia continue to grow at six per cent a year, the country is likely to become a net importer of oil by 2011.