Archives

from Mohammed Rasooldeen in Riyadh

A prominent Sri Lankan recruiting agent who is on a visit to the Kingdom, said that the island is no more a market for housemaids, it can also supply skilled manpower to suit the needs of the Kingdom.

The chairman of the Hal Group M. M. Jameel who has recruited over 25,000 Sri Lankan workers to the Middle East including Saudi Arabia told Riyadh Daily that his government has geared itself to meet the manpower needs of the Kingdom.

Jameel who is on a brief visit to the Kingdom with his consultant U. L. M. Ismail to meet prospective business partners said that there is a great demand for web designers, network engineers, system engineers, system adminstrators, software programmers and hardware engineers in the Kingdom's IT sector and medical transcriptionists, nurses and other para medical personnel in the health care sector Pointing out that the Kingdom's labour market has been going through a changing trend, Jameel said Sri Lanka, one of the major manpower supplier of housemaids from South Asia reflects that trend. "We are not just a supplier of haousemaids or municipal workers".

"In fact 75% of the our recruits were technicians for the Kingdom's airports, hospitals, the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, air base in Taif and Jeddah, universities and Saudi Aramco". The restoration of peace in Sri Lanka following the Norwegian brokered Peace Accord has given a shot in the arm to the island's employment market. As many as 800 professionals were recruited following the end of civil war.

They included IT professionals, interior decorators, personnel for ticketing and tourism, IT solutions. Jameel said that the Sri Lanka's Minister of Labour, Mahinda Samarasinghe has come out with the idea of expanding the manpower supply market by hodling a job fair which will be attended by leading recruitment agencies in the island. This, he said, will display the ability and strength in terms of identifying and selecting the right personnel for the job vacancies.

The job fair is a post civil war phenomenon. It is being organised in conjunction with the Sri Lanka Employment Bureau which also presents awards to the best recruiting agencies, he said.

He said his company has launched a vocational training program as part of its plan to set up a cadre of trained and qualified technical manpower.

Courtesy Riyadh Daily

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager