KATHMANDU, JUNE 10
A labour agreement has been reached between Nepal and Saudi Arabia.
During a bilateral sideline meeting on Tuesday, the landmark agreement was signed between Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sharat Singh Bhandari and Saudi Arabia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tariq Al Hamad, facilitating the deployment of Nepali workers to Saudi Arabia, according to Minister Bhandari's private secretariat.
Minister Bhandari stated that Saudi Arabia has agreed to promptly sign two separate pacts concerning skill certification programs for both general and skilled workers, while retaining the existing domestic labour agreement.
It is worth noting that Nepal has already given its approval to the draft agreement regarding general labour with Saudi Arabia.
"An agreement for sending general workers to Saudi Arabia has been reached, although the formal signing is still pending," Minister Bhandari explained. "Saudi Arabia had insisted that the general labour agreement could only be signed after the domestic workers' agreement was finalized. However, the current meeting decided to proceed with the already agreed pact while continuing groundwork on the draft domestic labour agreement."
He also informed the Saudi delegation about the directive from Nepal's parliamentary committee emphasizing that the domestic labour agreement should be finalized only after concluding the bilateral labour agreement.
Minister Bhandari further highlighted the need to initiate a pilot project to facilitate this process.
(With inputs from Rastriya Samachar Samiti)
