Philippines, Saudi Arabia strengthen labour cooperation
Saudi Arabia and the Philippines have signed several bilateral agreements on cooperation in labour and drug control during Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to the Middle East country.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (Photo: EPA/VNA)
Cairo (VNA) – Saudi Arabia andthe Philippines have signed several bilateral agreements on cooperation inlabour matters and drug control during Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’svisit to the Middle East country.
Saudi Arabia will still need more Filipinoworkers despite its "Saudization" policy, the Philippines’ LabourSecretary Silvestre Bello said on April 12 following a meeting between PresidentDuterte and Saudi Arabian King Salman.
He said Saudi officials told him they stillneed Filipinos who work in fields ranging from construction, domestic work,healthcare, retail to engineering, telecommunications, transport and the oilindustry.
The information was released in the contextthat Saudi Arabia is implementing economic reforms with a target of reducingthe unemployment rate to 9 percent in 2020 from 11.6 percent in 2016 which aimsto intensify the use of local workers.
Saudi Arabia is the second largest employerof overseas Philippine workers in the Middle East with 760,000 people.
Labour export is a big source of foreigncurrency of the Philippines. Remittances sent from the Middle East byPhilippine workers reached 7.5 billion USD last year.
President Duterte said that along with labouraffairs, his visit is to expand cooperation in investment, trade, security,energy and drug combat.-VNA
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (Photo: EPA/VNA) 
