Soon, Korea to sign pact with India to source skilled manpower, open doors for blue-collar workers

NEW DELHI/SEOUL: Having eased norms for the entry of more foreign skilled and low-skilled workers recently, South Korea in ‘serious’ talks with India to source manpower, and may soon ink a formal pact on this. Currently, Korea relies more on skilled and low-skilled workers coming from China (Koreans), the Philippines, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, and Nepal but in the absence of any formal agreement with India, the presence is Indian manpower is negligible there.

Minister Sang-woo Lim (Deputy Head of Mission), Embassy of the Republic of Korea in New Delhi told Asian Community News (ACN Network) that India might soon be in a position to send skilled and semi-skilled worker to Korea as governments on both sides are in serious talks on this matter.

“Our government is in the process of talks with the Indian government on the issue of manpower sourcing as we don’t have any formal agreement with India for the guest worker program that we have in Korea.  Though both sides have been in talks for quite some time and these deliberations gained momentum recently,” Minister Sang-woo Lim said adding that Korea was in need of professional manpower at the post-doctorate level but also required low-skilled manpower too.

“We welcome workers from all the world but especially from India the discussion is going on and we may soon reach the agreement allowing more Indian to go to Korea to work,” he added.

Facing chronic shortages of skilled workers, Korea recently announced to boost visas for skilled workers. It is a widely known fact that the younger South Koreans are reluctant to take up blue-collar jobs, in the industrial and farming sectors, and the world’s tenth-largest economy Korea is struggling to fill vacancies.

Under the Employment Permit System (EPS) and foreign guest workers program, Korea has E-7-4 and E 9 work visas.  While announcing its largest visa easing norms of all time in the history under E-7-4 visa programme, South Korea last month increased its annual quota of bringing in foreign skilled workers to 30,000 this year, increasing it by fifteen-fold, the justice minister announced. Initially it planned to cap this year’s quota at 5,000. Since its introduction, the annual quota for the E-7-4 visa programme has gradually risen from 300 in 2017 to 2,000 in 2022.

As per the agencies, the presidential office quoted Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon as telling a government meeting that it should end “talk of foreigners being unable to come due to insufficient quota. In response to requests from industry, the criteria for visa applications will also be relaxed, the ministry said.

Previously on December 29, the Ministry of Labor and Employment announced the revision of the Employment Permit System (EPS). Foreign staff with high fluency in Korean and who have worked for a designated period at the same workplace can work in the country for up to 10 years without needing to depart or re-enter.

The range of job types open to foreign workers has also been expanded from agriculture, manufacturing, construction, and waste disposal to more fields like cargo handling and housekeeping.

Adopted in 2004, the EPS allows foreign staff to work in Korea for up to four years and 10 months with one re-entry into the country permitted. For this reason, companies found it hard to keep skilled foreign workers who had worked for a long time and many such laborers chose to stay in the nation illegally.

According to the highly placed sources in the Indian government, India has been in talks with Korea for about four years on the issue of sending blue-collar workers.

India has offered to send its skilled workforce to South Korea basis the same model – Technical Intern Training Program (TITP), which it has worked out with Japan.

Related article: South Korea keen on sourcing Indian skilled manpower, India offers Japan’s internship model TITP

According to highly placed sources in the Indian Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), the matter was discussed many times during the India-Korea Finance Ministers meeting in the past just before the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020. The talks could not materialized further because of the pandemic.

“After receiving interest from South Korean for sourcing skilled manpower from India, we sent the draft plan as well as the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to the government of South Korea in 2019-20. However, apart from Covid-19 pandemic, what delayed the matter was that South Korea wanted to include world bank funding component to fund the skill program,” a highly placed source in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), told Asian Community News Network.

The source further said that India suggested to send skilled workforce to South Korea the  way it’s doing with Japan under the TITP and SSW model.