West beckons skilled Lankans
Rasika Somarathna
*Many job opportunities already secured
*Foreign remittances cross US$ 5 b mark
Skilled Sri Lankan foreign employment aspirants can expect a large
number of lucrative job offers in the UK, USA, Canada, Italy, New
Zealand and Australia this year. Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment
(SLBFE) new chairman Amal Senadhilankara told the media yesterday that
authorities had secured a number of such job opportunities and many more
were in the pipeline.
![](z_p01-West.jpg)
Senadhilankara.
Picture by Ranjith Asanka |
The former parliamentarian who assumed duties at the SLBFE yesterday,
predicted further growth in the sector this year, following an
impressive 2011, where worker remittances crossed an unprecedented US $
5 billion to be the country’s highest foreign revenue earner.
According to Foreign Employment Minister Dilan Perera, Sri Lanka’s
newest destination Italy, is slated to offer over 3,600 jobs for Lankans
on a government to government basis. Over 10,000 Lankans who qualified
as the recent Korean language proficiency test are also expected to
secure employment this year with the minimum basic wage exceeding US $
1,000.
Another initiative is to negotiate a tripartite collaboration between
the University of Hertfordshire of UK, Open University of Sri Lanka and
SLBFE on nursing education with special emphasis on foreign employment.
Qualified Lankan nurses are expected to secure employment in the UK,
USA, Canada and EU countries. Senadhilankara said successful
negotiations have been held with Australia, New Zealand, Canada and a
number of EU countries. Opportunities are expected to be available
mainly in the hospitality, nursing, fisheries, agriculture, IT,
technical and construction sectors.
Sri Lanka is also expected to strengthen agreements with existing
markets such as Jordan, UAE, Bahrain, Libya, South Korea, Qatar, Kuwait,
Oman and Lebanon.
An MoU with Israel is under negotiation to recruit of 2,500
construction workers and 500 care givers and a number of other
opportunities in the field of agriculture.
Foreign employment authorities are focusing on skilled and
professional categories which will have a higher earning capacity and
less employment related problems.
Negotiations are also on to establish a job-ensured export-oriented
worker training institute as a joint collaboration with the SLBFE and
two Malaysian organizations. This will meet the growing demand for
especially skilled workers in Malaysia.
Authorities are also negotiating with Japan on the possibility of
training Sri Lankan-workers. |