Sri Lanka has reported a significant growth in the number of workers who have left for South Korea for employment this year.
The number of Sri Lankan workers departing for Korea this year has surpassed 5,000, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara announced, growing by 44% compared to the previous year.
Manusha Nanayakkara said on social media that the figure showed the country’s commitment to enhancing employment prospects.
The director of the South Korean human resources department based in Sri Lanka met for a discussion with Nanayakkara earlier in April had agreed to provide 8,000 job opportunities for Sri Lankans in South Korea this year, exceeding the job quota of 6,500 offered earlier, local media reported.
Sri Lankans are permitted to work in South Korea under its Employment Permit System (EPS).
Amendments in the South Korean EPS system after 20 years will result in more foreign recruitments from Sri Lanka to Korea, the Korean minister for labour and employment, Lee Jung-Sik said when he met Nanayakkara last month.
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol noted the contributions of Sri Lankans working in South Korea and pointed out there was potential for expanding job opportunities further when he met Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September.
This year, Sri Lankan workers’ remittance in August surpassed US$499 million, and the cumulative figure for the January-August period was around US$3.9, a 74.4% increase compared with the same period in 2022, according to official data.
Workers’ remittance is one of the main sources of foreign revenues for Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan workers in South Korea work in 4 sectors: fishery, manufacture, construction and shipbuilding.
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