Workers for industrial job: Korean team may visit Karachi next month for recruitment

A Korean industry delegation is likely to visit Karachi to recruit workers for the industrial jobs in Korea next month, an official of the Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) told Business Recorder here on Tuesday.
According to an agreement between the both countries, Pakistan will provide skilled and unskilled manpower to Korea for its industrial needs, he said. It must be noted that Korean delegation was due in Pakistan at the end of July 2007, but postponed its plan due to its 30 aid workers were abducted and one was killed in Afghanistan during that period, he said.
He added that abduction and then killing of one Korean aid worker created panic in Korea, therefore, most of the delegations scheduled for this region, avoided visiting Pakistan. However, now after the release of abducted Korean aid workers in Afghanistan, this delegation has decided to accomplish its plan of hiring workers from Pakistan, which is due next month, he added.
The delay also caused by lack of proper security arrangements for the delegation, he said and added that the government seemed more interested to send its local manpower abroad instead facilitating such foreign industry delegation. "Government should facilitate the foreign delegates so that country's image could be built up besides placing sufficient local workforce in foreign countries," he suggested. Earlier, OEC has started one-month language programme for interested candidates and taught them Korean language, reading and writing and enhanced their skill besides acquainting them with the Korean advance industrial environment, he added.
Labour training programme had been conducted at all OEC branches including Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore and Islamabad and more than 150 students have been trained.
Korea is mostly depending on overseas manpower for its industrial needs because they recruit them at cheaper salaries, he said and added that Korean's annual labour requirement was about three thousand and it has mostly been inducted from pacific.
Since the inception of advance technology in the developed countries of the world, the local unskilled labours have lost working opportunities in these countries, the official pointed out.
He said that the government should initiate training programmes for unskilled manpower desiring to go abroad in search of jobs. This would contribute towards enhancing foreign exchange earnings of the country.