‘Government’s move to weaken foreign employment trade’ Entrepreneurs who are involved in sending workers overseas have complained today that due to government’s weakness and ill-intention, the foreign employment sector has been hit hard. They have expressed fears that it is going to affect remittances directly. They were speaking at an interaction programme organised by the International Employment Entrepreneurs Association (IEEA) in the capital today. Dan Bahadur Tamang, former chairman of Nepal Foreign Employment Association (NFEA), today said that the government is focusing on quantity rather than quality in sending workers abroad which is not a good practice to boost remittance collection. Tamang said that the economy would be in trouble if the government started the job of sending workers abroad. Due to government laws, regulations and evaluation, malpractice is increasing in the employment sector, foreign employment entrepreneurs commented at the programme. According to Tamang, government should not send workers abroad as it is neither very feasible nor sustainable. The government’s current move to take control of the business of sending workers to Korea is aimed at sending cadres of the political parties abroad, accused Tamang, while speaking at the function. He expressed his concerns that due to increased conflict between the government and the employment agencies, the proposed Korean delegation to Nepal has been postponed. He suggested that the persons who could manage loans for workers interested to go to Korea need to be given high priority. Prasiddha Rana, promoter of Moon Drops Overseas, said that the government’s process to send workers to Korea is totally ‘false’. If the government starts sending workers abroad, remittance would be hit, Rana said. Earlier also, the government had conducted a research for sending workers to Korea, but later it failed to send anyone, he informed. The government’s job is to make the system more transparent and facilitate workers going abroad, he said. Ganesh Man Lama, president of IEEA expressed confidence that the government cannot send workers abroad as it is taking interest in sending political party cadres and collect money to run their parties. He also challenged the government to bring quota from Korea for a second time to send workers for employment. Nanda Rai, managing director of Everest Associates, opined that to boost foreign employment, a new foreign employment act is urgently required. Monitoring and evaluation of foreign employment sector are needed to boost it further, Rai suggested.