Thailand earns over Bt36b from labour exports in five months

BANGKOK, July 5 (TNA) - Thai workers overseas have remitted a total of over 36 billion baht to their homecountry so far this year. Arak Prommanee, Director-General of the Department of Employment, under the Ministry of Labour, told journalists on Tuesday that there were a total of 45,818 Thai nationals legally-approved by his department to work overseas during the first five months of this year and they had remitted a total of 36.686 billion baht home through the Bank of Thailand (BOT) system. Arak said, citing official statistics, that the Thai workers overseas were divided into five categories, including 11,591 of them who were sent by legally-registered private employment firms, 4,441 of them who were sent by his department free of service charges, except their necessary expenses like visa fee and air tickets, 3,208 of them who had directly contacted and hired by their employers abroad, 1,848 of them who were led to work abroad by their employers in Thailand and 1,886 of them who were sent for training courses abroad by their employers in Thailand. According to the senior official, a total of 22,844 Thai nationals sought a re-entry to their employers' economies to continue working there, most of whom to Taiwan at 13,321, followed by 5,289 to South Korea, 3,558 to Japan, 3,288 to Israel and 3,254 to Singapore. (TNA)