KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Labour and Transport Management (MoLTM) is showing serious concern about sending Nepali blue-collar job aspirants to South Korea in 2010-11. South Korea is a lucrative destination for Nepali workers, where they get five-fold income compared to what they get in Gulf countries and Malaysia.

Labour minister Mohammed Aftab Alam will visit South Korea on January 18 to renew the Employment Permit System (EPS) agreement. “EPS agreement will be signed on January 18 for the next two years,” said Purna Chandra Bhattrai, joint-secretary. “The South Korean government has invited minister Alam to continue the EPS agreement.”

Nepal and South Korea had signed a bilateral agreement for EPS on July 23, 2007 and the EPS process started in the middle of the following year. “The agreement was subject to renewal before July 22, 2009 but we couldn’t do it in time,” he said, “Subsequently, it was extended for three months in July and October last year.”

Nepal had got an appreciation of best-sending country from the South Korean Human Resource Department for 2008-09. Around 3,864 — 58.66 per cent of total 6,586 applicants listed in the EPS roster — got South Korean jobs in the last two years. EPS aspirants earn around $1,000 each and are contributing Rs 2 billion in remittance.

EPS hires foreign labour aged between 18 to 39 years through a rigorous selection process of Korean Language Test (KLT) followed by listing in the roster, labour contract and issuance of Certificate of Confirmation of Visa Issuance (CCVI).

Around 373 had lost their chance to get dream jobs in South Korea due to cancellation of labour contracts and CCVIs. As per the EPS Nepal office data, labour contracts of 139 youths were cancelled and so were the CCVIs of 234. The South Korea craze made EPS Nepal website a most visited site in 2008-09 with 6,65,530 hits.

Meanwhile, EPS Nepal office has started de-registration of EPS aspirants in the roster for the year 2010-11.

Those applicants who failed to get jobs will have to submit new medical reports along with police reports and registration forms. The office has fixed Rs 2,100 as fees for the process which is significantly less than 2008’s fee of Rs 3,200.