The Prime Minister of South Korea, Han Duck-soo, said Thursday the government will improve its management of foreign workers to help address labor shortages caused by a declining and aging population.
Han made the remark during a government meeting held in the central administrative city of Sejong, saying the government drew up a plan for better managing the migrant workforce by collecting opinions in the field and meeting with experts.
“We will combine the foreign workforce management responsibilities that have until now been divided among ministries, and strengthen connections and adjustments between foreigner policies,” he said, noting there are currently around 560,000 foreign laborers in the country, with the number expected to grow further.
“Also, we will improve the way in which we have responded to short-term demand by visa type, and draw up a workforce policy tailored to users based on mid- to long-term forecasts of supply and demand in each sector,” he said.
Under the current system, E-8 visas for seasonal workers have been handled by the justice ministry, E-9 visas for nonprofessional workers by the labor ministry, and E-10 visas for crewmembers by the oceans ministry.
The revised system will group the visas by sector so that farm workers on E-8 and E-9 visas are overseen by the agriculture ministry, fisheries workers on E-8, E-9 and E-10 visas overseen by the oceans ministry, and manufacturing, construction and service industry workers on the E-9 visa overseen by the labor and other related ministries.
The government will also place the management of the total number of foreign workers under the foreign workforce policy committee headed by the government policy coordination minister, instead of having each ministry oversee the total per visa type.
In addition, the government plans to make active efforts to attract foreign workers in the cutting-edge and other professional sectors by providing incentives and easing visa requirements, and expand the scope of jobs and training available to foreigners who have graduated from local universities.
Han said the government should work closely together to establish a systematic management system for migrant workers so that diligent foreign laborers can continue to enter the domestic workforce “within the limits of not violating our people’s jobs.”