Nepal and Saudi Arabia Reach Key Labour Agreement to Send Nepali Workers

Nepal and Saudi Arabia have reached an important labour agreement to send Nepali workers to Saudi Arabia.

The deal was made during a bilateral meeting on Tuesday between Nepal’s Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security, Sharat Singh Bhandari, and Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Tariq Al Hamad.

Minister Bhandari said Saudi Arabia agreed to quickly sign two agreements focused on skill certification for both general and skilled workers, while keeping the existing domestic labour agreement unchanged.

Nepal has already approved a draft agreement for sending general workers to Saudi Arabia. However, the formal signing is still pending. Saudi Arabia had earlier said the general worker agreement could only be signed after the domestic workers’ agreement was finalized.

At the meeting, both sides decided to move forward with the existing agreement for general workers and continue working on the draft for the domestic labour agreement.

Minister Bhandari also informed the Saudi officials about Nepal’s parliamentary committee’s directive that the domestic labour agreement should be finalized after the two countries sign the labour pact.

He emphasized the need to start a pilot project to support this process.