Long serpentine queues in Kathmandu are no more a subject of curiosity to us. The endless lines of cars at gasoline stations, people crowding around water tankers, devotees pushing into shrines and investors interested in IPO lined up in front of commercial institutions are most common scenes one can see every day. However, the one I saw a few months back looked quite unusual. The mass gathered there were only the youngsters probably from late teens to people in their thirties. Their facial expressions carried pronounced signs of pain, desperation and anxiety. I could easily see the “Do or Die” atmosphere there. Letter in the day, I came to know the swarm there was of the aspirant applicants eager to work in Korea. It went on for days perhaps reminding us of human exodus we see quite often on news from around the world.

With the tank in my car almost dry due to ongoing rationing of petroleum products, I found no other means of relaxing on a Saturday than lazing at home which gave me a chance to chitchat with my brother-like figures who has been close to us for decades. I found him so excited that day; he believed he had a plan well in place for his future. He finally got hold of a recruiter who had promised him a job in a company in Dubai - a job which gives him a remuneration of over Rs 12,000 a month with free accommodation!

I congratulated and wished him all the success but could not help crunching some numbers - quietly within myself. He would be bearing a total cost of about Rs 100,000 for air tickets and charges due to the manpower company. He would probably need additional two thousand rupees every month to cover cost for food and other supplies on top of what he would get from the company. A two year of work would perhaps fetch him an income of about Rs 290,000- the saving being about five to six thousand rupees a month which is about eighty dolors a month. I tried not believing it but could not ignore the fact that he would send such eighty- dolor back home not only to buy a plot of land in Kathmandu for himself but also to buy our petrol from abroad to fill up our cars.

Back home, it is more of a challenge not only to get hold of good professionals but also to get dedicated non-skilled labour in abundance. It was like a real manhunt, while searching for an engineer for one of my recent hotel expansion projects. The contractor for the same project has already got his site engineer changed the fourth time in just over nine months. The void in our labor market has already become obvious. We will perhaps spend many of our 80-dollar remitted to us to buy our skilled manpower and services back from abroad.

The disappearing political borders are now given to us in an international market under a trend of globalisation. The fact that around 30 per cent of our 5.6 million households depends on earnings from overseas jobs while its contribution to our gross domestic production (GDP) is 23.4 per cent cannot be undermined. However, getting paid in silver for lending out our brains and hands and then buying them back paying in gold is certainly not a wise way of handling our human resources.

A labor in Kathmandu earns about Rs 400 a day today whereas a skilled labor makes over Rs 700 a day - which is almost Rs 12,000 a month even if he gets work for 15 days a month. The majority of people who aspire hard to get a job abroad are not skilled but if trained even for a short span of time, they can be skilled enough to earn at home as much as they would earn abroad. Even if one decides to go abroad, their average income would certainly improve from the present average of Rs 14,000 a month.

Awareness among for vocational and short-term training progrmmes and more importantly commitment from our planners and rulers are what we need today to add value and competitiveness to our work force. Venturing for such a noble cause will give us tangible and immediate returns for sure - inflow of remittance will grow, unemployment will reduce and balance of payment will improve. Perhaps we will then be trading our silver for gold not our gold for silver!!

(Pradhan is Director Business Development & Projects at Soaltee Hotel Limited.)