Korea calling

South Korea’s rating of Nepali workers highly and doubling the job quota for them to 15,298 for 2012 under its Employment Permit System (EPS) is a welcome development. It has showcased Nepali workers as sincere, dedicated and with the potential to be as productive as workers from any other labor exporting country. It should encourage domestic policy makers and raise optimism in the private sector as well. Given due capacity building, a good working environment and proper inculcation of a modern work culture, similar productivity can be achieved among workers back home. If Nepali workers can do it abroad, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to do likewise at home.



But the foremost pre-condition for such a transformation to be possible is a halt to the politicization of workers, which has been going on for so long. Are our political parties and their affiliated trade unions ready for that? The answer is plain and simple: they must be ready. If they want immediate and long-term betterment of workers, the economy and the country as whole there is no other option. Politicization and polarization of the work force has never done any good for the workers themselves.



Trade unions that use the backing of political parties to defend criminal activities by workers and unfairly force factories to pay wages even when no work is done have doomed whatever work ethic we may have. Political party backing has only turned trade unions overly militant. And such a trend has caused more job losses than created new jobs. The case of Surya Nepal is just one example. So we urge the trade unions to turn their focus to activities that make a meaningful contribution to the development and betterment of workers.



Recognition of Nepal by a booming Asian economy as a great source of labor is encouraging for our foreign employment sector as well. It has not just enabled more eligible Nepali youths to find lucrative work, but also exposed them to contemporary international work culture. This will have its own impact in the medium and long-term. It will also enable Nepal to eye other job markets. By upgrading its workforce from unskilled to skilled, Nepal can tap that job potential. The government should promptly focus on human resource development, even forming if need be a national human resource development policy that takes into account the needs of both domestic and overseas markets.



Korean recognition has also raised pressure on Nepal to live up to its new-found reputation. To do so, it must ensure fairness in the selection process. At the same time, it should not take foreign jobs for granted forever. The ultimate goal should be to create more jobs within the country by creating an environment for industrialization and investment.

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