Export of Nepali manpower 'growing' Oct-02-2010
Dearth of employment opportunities in the country has long been propelling Nepali youths to fly to foreign land in search of greener pastures.
The political instability and volatility continues to hamstring investments in business and commercial avenues, thus stifling the potential of the expansion of labour market.
It's a fact that the country's shaky economy has largely been buoyed up by the remittance sent by Nepali migrant workers.
According to Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) data, the country received a whopping Rs 182 billion in remittance in the last fiscal year. Similarly, the foreign employment sector is contributing 17.4 percent to the total GDP of the country.
Even though Nepali foreign employment sector has of late been facing the cascading impacts of the global economic meltdown, the number of such labourers leaving for overseas has seen a constant rise.
The growing trend of job-seeking through personal initiative has been attributed to the rise in Nepali people going abroad for employment Nepali labour markets abroad is said to have been augmented 64-fold times over the last 15 years.
Some 2,29,405 Nepalis left for foreign employment in the fiscal year 2007-08, which was 63.63 times more than 15 years ago. Around 3,605 Nepalis had gone for blue-collar jobs in foreign lands in the fiscal year 1992-93. A total of 141,544 Nepalis - 1,39,625 males and 1,919 females - went for foreign employment in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, according to the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE). Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were learnt to be the first three positions as job destinations until 2001-02 before the entry of Malaysia.
The top three countries alone accounted for 74.51 per cent of the foreign labour market hiring 41,002 Nepalis -17,966 in Saudi Arabia, 14,086 in Qatar and 8,950 in the UAE - in 2000-01, it is reported.
Malaysia secured one among the first three positions in the fiscal year 2001-02, providing jobs to 11,306 Nepali labourers. Thereafter, Malaysia was the number two destination until the country reeled under the global financial later in 2008. Last month, Malaysia was in fourth position, hiring 1,674 Nepali migrant labours.
In like manner, Saudi Arabia hired the highest number of Nepali labourers, 21,094 in 2001-02.
Malaysia topped the chart in 2005-06, hiring 66,291 while the UAE stood at number three. Around 26,850 Nepalis left for the UAE in 2003-04.
It is estimated that around 2.5 million Nepali people are working in various countries both legally and illegally as migrant workers. nepalnews.com may 08 09
