SL workers most popular in Korean market - Ambassador

Rasika SOMARATHNA

The number of Sri Lankan’s migrating for jobs in South Korea has increased considerably in the first part of 2012 in comparison to last year, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment(SLBFE) said.

SLBFE chairman Amal Senalankadikara said that 1,527 workers had gone to Korea for jobs in the first four months of 2012, in comparison to 1,370 in the last year.

Last year, 5,346 persons migrated for employment to Korea and this year the figure is expected to exceed 9,000.

At the Korean Language proficiency test held last year, 9998 candidates passed the test(highest ever) clearing the first hurdle to be eligible for Korean jobs.

Out of them over 2,000 have already signed employment contracts.

Meanwhile, it was recently announced that Sri Lanka has become the top labour sending country to the South Korean job market. Korean authorities said that Sri Lanka’s top ranking was due to efficiency and innovativeness of workers and transparency of the authorities.

Sri Lanka faced the ignominy of being kicked out from the Korean job market a few years back, due to the high number of complaints received against our workers.

The SLBFE and the Ministry of Foreign Employment at the time took swift remedial measures to arrest the decline and improve the standard of workers.

“Out of 15 countries, the Sri Lankan government now holds the highest employment quota” South Korean ambassodor in Sri Lanka Jong Moon Choi said in a recent interview with ‘Daily News’.

The ambassodor on behalf of the Korean government presented a memento to President Mahinda Rajapaksa in recognition of this feat recently. Sending Sri Lankan workers to South Korea started under an initiative mooted by President Rajapaksa during his tenure as the Labour Minister in the early 1990s.

“The contribution of Sri Lankan workers’ to the economy of Korea is indispensable. Korea is currently facing a lack of manpower in the primary and secondary industries. Under the Employment Permit system, approximately 21,000 Sri Lankan workers are employed in Korea. “Furthermore, Sri Lankan workers are popular in the Korean job market,”Choi added.

He also said that Korean law provides the same payment and treatment as locals to foreigners and this is the major reason why Korea is a most favourable destination for Sri Lankan workers.