Dhaka set to sign manpower export deal with Seoul

Bangladeshs interim administration has approved an agreement to be signed early next month for manpower export to South Korea.

By Nazrul Islam

Dhaka, May 27 : Bangladesh's interim administration has approved an agreement to be signed early next month for manpower export to South Korea.

The interim Cabinet at a meeting, with Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair, gave the final nod to a draft of the deal in line with the Korean Employment Permit System, a new system introduced by the Korean authorities for overseas manpower recruit.

Once signed, the deal would allow Bangladesh to send some 10,000 skilled, semi-skilled and non-skilled workers initially for three years, said an official spokesman after the meeting on Saturday.

"The deal will help safeguard the Bangladeshi workers in Korea," Syed Fahim Munaim, the press secretary to the chief adviser, said.

He said the deal is expected to be signed in the first week of June when Bangladesh's foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, would visit South Korea.

Ahmed is scheduled to attend the Asian Cooperation Dialogue to be held in the Korean capital Seoul on June 4-6.

The Korean authorities recently decided to recruit some 50,000 workers from 14 countries, including Bangladesh, from where the workers would be drawn for four categories --construction, manufacture, services, and agriculture, fisheries and livestock.

Government agency-- Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited-- will process the jobs in Korea.

There are some 12,000 Bangladeshis working in South Korea.

ANI