Foreign ministers of Nepal and Japan leader their respective delegations in the working dinner.
KATHMANDU: Officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs state that no discussion was held on the labor agreement with Japan during the visit of Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Yoko Kamikawa.
Minister Kamikawa arrived in Kathmandu for a daylong visit on Sunday afternoon and returned the same evening.
“Since Minister Kamikawa’s visit to Nepal was very short, we couldn’t hold discussions on important issues like the labor agreement,” said Amrit Bahadur Rai, the spokesperson for the foreign ministry. “It’s not that Minister Kamikawa didn’t show any concern about the agreement.”
Nepal and Japan signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on Specified Skilled Workers in 2019. The MoC paved the way to send skilled Nepali workers to Japan through the government channel. However, the government hasn’t been able to send any workers to Japan.
The five-year MoC expired in April, according to the Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security. The ministry is now preparing for the renewal of the MoC, according to Govinda Rijal, the spokesperson for the ministry. “The government failed to send workers to Japan as per the MoC due to some technical reasons. We are taking necessary initiatives to resolve them,” he added.
Rijal told Himal Press that he believes the two countries will forge a policy consensus and make a concrete decision on this issue.
