Foreign employment nets Rs. 2.3 b revenue

Hathoon Sheriffdeen

REVENUE: “Our records indicate that we make US $ 2.3 billion of unyielding revenue to the country’s foreign exchange income per year. Sri Lankan Government does not spend a cent to append this return to its balance of payment,” President, Association of Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies (ALFEA), U. T. M. Anver said.

“Foreign exchange revenue earned by foreign employment is 100 per cent solid revenue to our country. Sri Lanka should target the total demand of the global foreign employment market for our country, which is very advantageous to improve the country’s balance of payments, he said.

“Every year around 250,000 workers are sent abroad on foreign employment from Sri Lanka. Of these

 employees, Association of Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies sends 95 per cent.

The workers sent on foreign employment by Sri Lanka is just 10 per cent of the total number of workers, demanded by the global foreign employment market, Anver said.

“Global foreign employment market is very broad and wide and also very demanding. Sri Lanka has enough opportunities to market its skilled workers with existing perks.

“The total number of workers we send abroad is just 10 per cent of the total demand made by the global foreign employment market. The balance 90 per cent is untouched so far. Since unemployment is a headache to the Government, why don’t we take some valuable steps, on generating good labour to the existing demand of the foreign employment market? the President, ALFEA asked.

“The main reason, why we cannot utilise the remaining 90 per cent of the global labour market is that the country’s available labour is less on demand. We should improve the labour skills and English literacy rates of the workers in Sri Lanka,” he said.

He also said that our universities and vocational training centres can include a foreign employment skills section at each level of the curriculum. The foreign employment skills development professionals ensure this.

This will strengthen the country’s total labour standards. Various countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Pakistan have followed this method of learning and they market their labour at a fair price.

Anver also said that women’s labour is a high demand segment in this market, though there are enough social crises. This should be handled by the sector in a wise way. The illegal agencies should be raided by the government to keep the country’s standards steady in the global foreign employment market.