Plan to Attract Skilled Workers from India Doomed to Fail
By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter
A free trade agreement with India, which is set to go into effect from Jan. 1, will likely fail to attract much-needed skilled workers from India, a parliamentary think tank said Thursday.
``Given the measures that Korea has already implemented to attract skilled workers from India and the competition against existing major advanced countries to attract them, it is unlikely the Korea-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) will help bring additional skilled labor from India,'' said an official of the National Assembly Research Service.
In a paper, titled ``A Review on the Inflow of Human Resources with the Korea-India CEPA,'' the official pointed out that Korea should draw up a measure to further ease visa rules under the CEPA.
The paper pointed out that under the bilateral trade agreement, Korea grants one-year visas to Indian professionals, while countries like Canada, New Zealand and Germany offer a green card to lure talented Indians, who often opt to head to the United States for higher pay.
The CEPA will hardly have a positive impact in the labor market here, the official said.
Under the current Immigration Law, most qualified Indian professionals can apply for five-year work visas.