South Korea seeks to facilitate the entry of foreign workers into the shipbuilding sector. With the growth of the sector in the country, authorities seek to increase the qualified workforce
After years of downturn, the shipbuilding sector is on the rise in South Korea. However, the Asian country is having a lot of difficulties finding workers for these specific sectors. As a result, the country's authorities are facilitating the entry of foreign workers to work in shipyards.
After years of redesign, South Korean shipyards are seeing a huge increase in their business
The growth of shipbuilding industry in Korea comes after a long period of restructuring of the sector in the country. Over the past 10 years, many South Korean workers have been laid off to expedite the overhaul. However, as there were many workers laid off in the not-so-distant past, South Koreans do not look favorably on returning to the sector.
Data released by Korea Offshore & Shipbuilding Association (KOSHIPA), showed that the number of workers in the shipbuilding industry in Korea has seen a huge drop in recent years. Last year, for example, there were 92 thousand workers, however, the number surpassed 200 a few years ago.
Recently, South Korea authorized the entry of a total of 4.428 workers to the construction naval. In addition, new rules for immigration will still be released to fill in the gaps.
The Ministry of Justice of South Korea will simplify the requirements for the visa for foreign workers, the so-called E-7. For the naval area, the visa has four areas: welding, painting, electrical engineering and plant engineering.
During this period, shipyards invested a lot of money in an attempt to automate the construction process as much as possible. In the last 18 months, the sector in that country received many orders for containerships and LNG. In terms of value, South Korean shipyards accounted for 49% of new ship orders on the planet.
A few years ago, the Japan had to go through a similar process. In order to restructure the shipbuilding sector in the country, the rulers had to facilitate the entry of foreigners to work in the sector.
