Nepal, Korea going to renew EPS on Jan 18

Nepal and South Korea are renewing labor agreement under Employment Permit System (EPS) on January 18.
Minister for Labor and Transport Management Mohammad Aftab Alam and Secretary at Ministry of Labor and Transport Management (MoLTM) Baburam Acharya are soon leaving for South Korea to renew the EPS pact that was first signed on July 23, 2007. 

“While renewing the EPS agreement, we will request the Korean government to provide more job opportunities for Nepali youths in Korean enterprises,” Acharya told myrepublica.com on Wednesday.

The government has already renewed the agreement two times for six months after the pact expired on July 23, 2009.

The Korean government introduced EPS in 2004 to pave the way for its domestic employers to hire foreign workers to fulfill increasing demand of workers in different sectors. Korea has so far signed agreements with 15 countries --most of them Asian - to hire workers under the EPS. Korea has signed EPS with Vietnam, Mongolia, Thailand, China, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Cambodia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan and East Timor.

Recognizing Nepal´s effective sending process, the South Korean government recently rewarded Nepal as the best sending countries under the EPS. The Korean government had honored Nepal for reducing the sending period after the labor contracts were signed and for forging meaningful coordination with HRD Korea while recruiting Nepali workers.

Under the EPS, Nepal can send workers to Korea in five sectors -- agriculture, fishery, construction, manufacturing and service.

Of the total 6,586 workers listed in the roster, more than 4,200 have signed labor contracts and 3,700 of them have already left for South Korea.