Dhaka drags feet over renewing labour export deal with Seoul

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A Z M Anas
Bangladesh's delay in renewing a key labour export deal with the Asian industrial dynamo South Korea has dissuaded the country from capitalising on the low-cost foreign job offers, people familiar with the situation say.
Officials at the Overseas Employment Ministry have acknowledged the receipt of Seoul's draft agreement for the extension of the Employment Permit System (EPS) for two years. But the programme's backers have blamed bureaucratic tangle for the delay.
Ministry officials insist that the government is interested to renew the agreement and is "carefully evaluating" the proposal.
"It requires aggressive diplomatic drive. Otherwise, the South Korean job market will be a thing of the past," warned a potential job seeker.
"The South Korean economy has started growing after the initial shock of the global recession. So, it's high time we pursued the deal seriously," he added.
Under the EPS, it costs only Tk 56,000 to get a job in South Korea, much less than the official fee of Tk 84,000 for overseas migration.
The job-seeker said that the tenure of the interim arrangement would end next month, but the ministry was showing no urgency.
Official figures say, only 1929 workers managed factory jobs in the South Korean employment market since its government began hiring Bangladeshi migrants under the programme, introduced in 2006 for over a dozen Asian nations.
Asia's fourth largest economy tapped Bangladesh along with 14 other nations for its EPS programme as it leaned toward the government channel for the recruitment of foreign workers.
The programme was designed to clean up the mess in foreign workers' recruitment process, while also protecting their rights.
EPS abolished decades-long industrial trainee programme in 2006 under which South Korea brought in thousands of probationers from over a dozen Asian nations.
"The government is ready to sign the EPS agreement as soon as possible. The process is on track," said Amir Hossain, a general manager with the state-run BOESL (Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Limited).
Mr Hossain said an interim agreement is now operating after the expiry of the two-year deal in June.
BOESL, the official agency responsible for processing overseas jobs, said Seoul has temporarily suspended hiring Bangladeshi workers under pressure from rising joblessness in its recession-stricken industrial sector.
Officials at BOESL said the EPS also helped Bangladesh dismantle a cartel of private recruiting agencies that allegedly defrauded thousands of youths seeking employment in South Korea.
BOESL said it has selected 7935 applicants based on their performance in the Korean language test, of which some 1900 have already found manufacturing jobs in South Korea.
Until the global economic crisis, Asia's fourth largest economy was growing robustly and was a major magnet for foreign workers, especially from China, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Private recruiters, however, blamed the inefficiency of the state manpower agency for securing "fewer-than-expected" job permits for potential Bangladeshi migrants, even as demand was for 8000.
Migration experts and private recruiters say the Seoul market is crucial for Bangladesh as jobs in the country's traditional destinations are dwindling, thanks to the global crisis.
"Jobs in South Korea pay higher but cost less. So, it's a market that needs special attention," said Mohammad Masum, a former migrants' activist in South Korea.
Including workers without permits, an estimated 15000 Bangladeshis are living in South Korea, who sent home nearly $ 17 million in the fiscal year ended June 30, according to the central bank data.
South Korea opened its labour market to Bangladeshis in 1994, employing more than 1500 workers to serve in its booming manufacturing sector, mostly hired via the private channel.
After a peak in 1995, that number more than halved in 1997 when the Asian financial crisis pummelled the $1.0 trillion East Asian economy and had to be bailed out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Workers' outflow, however, rebounded quicker than anticipated, with the South Korean industrial sector employing 1501 Bangladeshis in 1998, a year after the economic crisis.