The Secretary of State for the Professional Training and Employment (SSPTE), Bendito Freitas, carried out an official visit to South Korea with the objective of reinforcing bilateral cooperation, as well as to renovate the Memorandum of Understanding on the Entry System for Workers with the Ministry of Work of South Korea, about to the program of sending Timor-Leste workers to that country.

During the visit, the Secretary of State sat with the President of Human Resources Development Service (HRDS) of South Korea, Mr. Yu, Jae Soub, to explain the activity of preparing Timor-Leste workers that want to work in South Korea. The Secretary of State reinforced the importance of the presence of the HRDS in Díli because, soon, SSPTE intends to extend the learning of the Korean language to the east and west parts of Timor-Leste, to provide opportunity to all that want to work in South Korea.

The HRDS President stated that: “The HRDS has interest in giving support to the Timorese workers in South Korea, and provide ideas in relation to the preparation of Timor-Leste workers, ideas that are important to make a good impression to the South Korean employers. Several companies still don’t know the existence of this Memorandum of Understanding”. Mr. Yu, Jae Soub, also talked about South Korean past experience when their workers went abroad, stating that those workers subsequently return better skilled to developed, with success, their country. “It’s up to Timor-Leste, that has natural resources, to administrate those resources and achieve the development of their country and the well being of the people”, he said.

The number of approved workers in the TLC in 2009 was 515. 105 Timorese are already in South Korea (working in factories and fishing areas). 197 Timorese are now doing the preliminaries trainings in the Overseas Employment Office. After the Korean Language course they will go to the TLC and then eventually will be sent to work in South Korea.