Staff Reporter :
South Korea will recruit about 6,000 workers from Bangladesh twice of the manpower than it planned.
Sources said that South Korea’s demand for foreign workers has been increased in its post-Covid financial operations.
The East Asian country confirmed their recruitment plan to the Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (Boesl) recently.
“South Korea would hire 6,000 Bangladeshi workers from next year after doubling the quota as the country’s demand of foreign workforce increased,” said Md Billal Hossain, Boesl Managing Director.
Bangladesh had a job quota of 3,000 workers in the Korean market so far to hire for different kinds of industries through an employment permit system (EPS) for 4.8 years.
Billal Hossain, said they have fulfilled the current year’s quota and received an additional quota of 2,000 from the country.
Apart from these, South Korea has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh on hiring seasonal agriculture and welding workforce for a period of six months.
Boesl officials said that a total of 200 workers would be sent to Korea for the agriculture sector under the new agreement by this month. Each worker will get a monthly wage of Tk 1,20,000.
Boesl sources said that the government’s 43 technical training centres are providing language training, which is the most important qualification for job in the Korean labour market.
A number of private language training centres are also imparting the training.
Boesl Chief said that Bangladeshi workers get a wage of Tk1.6 lakh for industrial jobs while professionals Tk 3.5 lakh each in the East Asian country.
South Korea is an emerging market for Bangladeshi manpower, and the government is thus trying to tap the opportunity properly, officials said.
Meanwhile, Boesl has extended the duration of skilled development and behavioral training from one week to two weeks for Korea-bound workers.
Bangladesh sent more than 23,000 workers on the EPS basis to South Korean until April 2022. South Korea hires 50pc of workers through examinations and the rest through a lottery system.
Those who qualify the test need not go on lottery. The country recruits unskilled workers from 16 selected countries, including Bangladesh through EPS.
Under a MoU signed between the two governments, the Boesl has been sending workers to South Korea since 2008.
