Republic of Korea

The General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) has been reaching out to trade unions in destination countries to ensure the protection of Nepalese migrant workers. They have moreover signed agreements and MoUs with trade unions in Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Hong Kong, and the Republic of Korea to enhance Nepalese workers' rights in these countries.

In 2006, the Korea International Labour Foundation (KOILAF) established the Interpretation Support Centre for Foreign Workers, which provided interpretation services free of charge in English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Thai, Russian, and Indonesian, as well as an automatic answering system accessible from anywhere in Korea.

The Republic of Korea has built infrastructure that directly links national remittance service providers with those in receiving countries to provide real-time remittance services at affordable costs, through the removal of intermediary services such as SWIFT and the establishment of bilateral partnerships between clearing and settlement institutions (e.g. the Korea Financial Telecommunications and clearing institutions). 

The ASEAN University Network is tasked to promote higher education, increase linkages between universities and encourage credit transfers in ASEAN+3 countries. In realization of this vital mission, the “ASEAN +3 Higher Education Policy Dialogue” was successfully convened in Phuket, Thailand in March 2009 with full support by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, the Office of Higher Education Commission, Thailand and the AUN Secretariat. 

Jointly implemented with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the project involves the development of a policy-benchmarking framework to assess the extent to which national migration policies facilitate orderly, safe and well managed migration, as laid out in SDG Target 10.7.

Since 2002, South Korea organises the World Korean Business Convention from time to time that relies on connectivity for migrants abroad. The Purpose is to rely on diaspora to foster trade and promote Korean export, by building an integrated global network of domestic and overseas Korean businesses

The Republic of Korea introduced the Employment Permit System (EPS) in 2004, which recognized the need for low-skilled workers by Korean enterprises (particularly of small and medium sizes) in construction, manufacturing, agriculture and services, and introduced a government–to-government labour recruitment programme based on mandatory MOUs with 15 countries in Asia. A major achievement is the reduction in the average cost paid by a worker from US$3,509 under the trainee system in 2002 to US$927 under the EPS system in 2011.

There is a bilateral agreement between Indonesia and the Republic of Korea on the placement of Indonesian labor migrants to ensure their fair treatment according to the Korean employment permit system scheme.                          

The OASIS project, Overall Assistance for Startup Immigration System, which is enforced by the Department of Justice and the Small and Medium Business Administration, and operated by 5 institutions designated as "Global Start-up Immigration Centers" (KIPA, Korea Immigration Service Foundation, Seoul Global Center, Korea Techno Venture Foundation and Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology), is a system to help foreigners establish start-up companies in Korea based on their intellectual properties.

The Overseas Korean Foundation uses the capabilities of overseas Koreans for national development in line with its globalization policy.

The project aims to build the foundations of educating human resources who can make contributions to the development of overseas Korean societies as well as in the motherland by finding the next generation talents of excellent overseas Koreans.