Amid the coronavirus pandemic, most of the construction works across the country are in halt due to the shortage of foreign workers. Considering this, the Economic Contingency Plan (ECP) delivery unit under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has come up with a new project, Build Bhutan. Through the project, the Labour Ministry will engage around 7,000 Bhutanese job seekers in the construction sector.
The project will help address both short and long term needs in the construction sector.
Currently, there are a lot of construction projects that either have started or are on the verge of completion. And the disruption in foreign labour force supply has only made the situation worse. Thus, Build Bhutan Project under the ECP is expected to fill in this gap.
“First is to look at the immediate need of the labour force in the construction sector, so that will be to mobilise and manage a pool of skilled as well as unskilled labour in the construction industry. The second objective is to retain the workforce in the construction sector itself because right now we do not have an adequate pool of skilled labour force in our own local market. We have to get from our neighbouring country. And the third objective is to build the construction sector as the viable employment generating industry,” said Tashi Dorji, from the ECP Delivery Unit Member under the PMO.
The project will look at the current unemployed youth and people who are laid off because of the COVID-19 pandemic and accordingly engage and provide skills. There are currently more than 20,000 people actively seeking jobs.
“The Ministry of Labour and Human Resources had also made a rapid assessment of the needs of the skilled and unskilled labour force in the construction sector. And while doing that they found out that there are over 20,000 looking at numerous projects both public and private constructions. And in that around 7,000 are skilled labour force that’s required in the construction sector. And this assessment has looked at the requirement of each occupational skills,” he said.
Moreover, the project is also looking at creating a specialised group for each occupational skills to make it sustainable.
“For example we are going to create a number of groups like electricians specialised group so that they can deliver the services not as an individual but as a service contract or as a subcontracting agencies. This we will make it as a business model so that it is sustainable for the industry as well as the individuals,” he added.
Meanwhile, the government is also planning to set a minimum wage rate for Bhutanese construction workers and provide an additional amount to make it more attractive.
Sonam Pem
