Minister for Labor and Transport Management, Lekh Raj Bhatta, wrote a letter on Monday to Maatouq Mohammed Maatouq, his Libyan counterpart, requesting the African country to provide employment opportunities to Nepali youths in the booming infrastructure sectors there.
“Nepal is eager to supply its labor force, which is praised for their sincerity and hard working habits, to Libya in its growing development works,” Bhatta said in the letter sent through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal.
“As a part of diversification of labor destinations, we have chosen Libya where massive construction works in infrastructure are underway,” said an official at the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management who preferred to remain unnamed.
The fourth largest African country is planning to employ about one million foreign workers in next five years to construct infrastructure projects worth 130 billion US dollars.
Libya had taken in 244 Nepali workers during the fiscal year 2007/08.
The non-oil manufacturing and construction sectors, which account for about 20 percent of Libya’s GDP, have expanded from agro-processing to petrochemicals, iron, steel and aluminum production.
Nepal has also offered a labor pact with Libya ensuring that MoLTM and Foreign Employment Promotion Board of Nepal would oversee the labor sending process.
Libyan economy depends primarily upon revenues from the oil sector, which contributes about one-quarter of gross domestic product.
Libyan has been carrying out economic reforms for last three years to reintegrate the country into the global capitalist economy.
prabhakar@myrepyblica.com
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