Stepping to ETCA: Govt. mulls removing barriers to hire Indian labours

The Sri Lankan Yahapalana government will look to streamline the regulatory process to hire foreign labours by providing greater powers to the Immigration and Emigration Controller, according to Christian pastor who turned to politics Finance State Minister Eran Wickramaratne.
He said that in the past, requests companies made to the Immigration and Emigration Department had to be forwarded to the relevant line ministries, which would take several months to decide whether to allow or deny the request, by which time, firms may have lost the opportunity which required foreign expertise.

 
The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) who promote ETCA an free tread agreement with India, in its recently released ‘State of the Economy 2017’, recommends the establishment of a competent macro-level authority which could capture foreign credential evaluation beyond individual professional bodies impartially.

 
Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chief Economist Anushka Wijesingha noted that the professional associations, which had opposed opening markets under Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India by saying that they need to get the house in order locally, are making the same argument 10 years later against the Economic and Technology Corporative Agreement (ETCA).
“So between then and last year, what were these professional associations doing?” he questioned. Former Central Bank Deputy Governor W. A. Wijewardena earlier this week said that approximately 8,000-10,000 visas are provided by the Immigration and Emigration Department for migrant
workers, annually.

 
Meanwhile, there are currently around 200,000 illegal foreign workers in Sri Lanka, working mainly in lower-level positions in the construction and agriculture sectors by taking advantage of the informal structure of the Sri Lankan economy. Yahapalana government keep blind eye on this matter to please India and minority Tamil and Muslim as many of them are Tamils from India and Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Burma.

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