Amid discouraging progress in the sending process under the JITCO agreement, the government had formed a committee led by Mohan Krishna Sapkota, Director General of DoFE, to recommend measures to expedite the sending process. [break]
“We have recommended the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management (MoLTM) to make it mandatory for the concerned manpower agencies to send works within three months of getting prior approvals from DoFE. This will discourage agencies that have been deliberately lingering the sending process by holding huge amount of money that they collect from the candidates as promotional charge,” said Sthaneswar Devkota, executive director of Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB) and also a member of the study panel.
The panel, which submitted its report to MoLTM last week, has also recommended revocation of sending licenses of the agencies failing to send works within one year of getting prior approvals.
Devkota said the panel has also recommended the government to increase the promotion charge to be paid by intern candidate to recruiting agencies to as much as two months of salary that they get from Japanese industrial enterprises. Nepali enters earn salary in the range of Rs 100,000 to Rs 120,000 per month depending on the cities they are recruited.
As per the JITCO guidelines issued last year, recruiting agencies were allowed to charge a maximum amount of Rs 50,000 per person from internship aspirants.
The panel has also suggested removing the provision that allowed only the companies in operation for at least three years to recruit Nepali interns. However, the interns must have at least two years of experience in the related field to be qualified for internship.
“We have also recommended the government to issue licenses to new manpower agencies that are in business at least for three years to send workers under JITCO pact by making necessary amendment to the guidelines,” Devkota said.
The committee has also suggested the government to collect Rs 10,000 as license renewal fee.
The government had formed the study team after JITCO wrote the government, expressing concern on the slow sending process.
As per the JITCO agreement, the government has designated 173 agencies, including Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), to send interns to Japanese industrial sector. Though 15 companies have brought demands for 408 workers, only Siddhartha Buddha Overseas has managed to send 10 workers to Japan in the last 10 months.
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