Departure of workers to the dominant countries- United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and South Arabia and Malaysia, has increased to 91 percent of the total during the year 2009/10, up from 88 percent recorded a year earlier. [break]
Of the total 217,164 workers leaving for overseas destinations, 191,682 went to those four countries during the year 2008/09. The number has been recorded at 267,862 out of a total of 294,094 workers during 2009/10.
Over the last one year, the government has opened up Mauritius, Poland, Japan and Libya for Nepali workers through institutional channels and added Uganda as a 108th labor destination.
“Manpower agencies are still not well informed about the new destinations despite permission from the government to export workers there. Dependence on traditional destinations will not end immediately given the weak promotional efforts by the government,” Gyan Prasad Gaire, vice-president of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA), told myrepublica.com on Saturday. “There is still risk in sending workers to newly opened countries.”
Gaire said merely opening new destinations without any promotional activities and diplomatic efforts to explore more job opportunities would not yield any concrete benefit to the nation.
He also complained that the government has remained indifferent to facilitating visas for manpower agencies out to promote employment opportunities in worker destination countries.
“We are facing problems getting visas for Japan for the promotion of job prospects in Asia´s largest economy. But the government has done nothing to facilitate things for us,” he added.
The government has formed a mechanism at the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) to write to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) to recommend Japanese visas for Nepali manpower agencies interested in going to Japan for promotional activities.
The government has designated 172 manpower agencies for sending Nepali industrial trainees to Japanese companies under an agreement with the Japan International Training Cooperation (JITCO).
Ganesh Gurung, member of the National Planning Commission (NPC), also agreed that the government has failed to promote jobs in the international market due to lack of a strong mechanism.
“Manpower agencies failed to bring in demands for Nepali workers from the newly opened countries due to lack of proper information about the nature of the work available in the recipient countries and the required skills,” said Gurung, who oversees the foreign employment sector at the NPC, the apex planning body of the government.
He also pointed out the existing mismatch between skills required in the labor market and the skills of Nepali job seekers, a major factor limiting job prospects for Nepalis.
“Establishing relations with local employers in overseas countries takes time for our manpower agencies, so most workers are found to be heading for the older destinations,” added Gurung.
prabhakar@myrepublica.com
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