Ministry of Labour and Transport Management has developed a strategy paper to safeguard overseas migration for jobs and generate jobs in domestic market.

It has developed a decade-long Labour Migration and Foreign Employment Strategy to provide jobs to people coming into labour market, said Under-Secretary of the ministry Chandeshwor Acharya.

“The strategy will focus on using returnee migrants’ skill and money in the development of the country,” he said. Unproductive use of remittance – over 60 per cent in household expenditures – is an issue of debate for years but no significant changes have been noticed in recent years. Foreign Employment Bond (FEB), started last year, to use remittance in productive sector has not received any encouraging response.

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has sold the bond worth only Rs 4.6 million in 2010-11 while the target was Rs one billion.

Initial reports of Foreign Employment Bond of this year are indicating the same fate of the bond.

The central bank, through various financial intermediaries has sold the bond worth less than Rs 1 million in a month. It opened the bond issue in early Baishak. It shows more focus needs to utilise remittance in productive sector.

The ministry has developed the strategy from experiences. So, it will be more pragmatic than earlier programmes, he said. According to him, the strategy aims to use migrants’ skills and remittance as ‘a factor of social and economic transformation’ of the country.

“Returned migrant workers have skills beneficial to the country,” he said. Around 4,00,000 Nepalis enter job market every year and two-third of them are employed in overseas labour markets. Only 50,000-60,000 Nepalis get jobs in domestic market each year.

The ministry has planned to crate jobs inside the country but it lacks concrete steps in the strategy. Prevalent economic, energy and labour crisis have not been properly examined.

The strategy also lacks effective measures in providing jobs to returnee migrant workers in case of emergency in destinations.

Published on: 14 May 2011 | The Himalayan Times