Sri Lanka firms short of workers, over 10,000 working on tourist visas: President

Apr 13, 2014 (LBO) - Sri Lankan firms are asking to employ more foreign workers to fill labour shortfalls, with over 10,000 working in the country on tourist visas, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.







"Some companies come and say, allow us to bring workers from abroad, from India," President Rajapaksa told a business forum where the annual report of the Central Bank was released earlier this week.

"Allow us to bring them from Korea.

Chairmen of some companies have come and had talks over that."

"We know that there are a large number of people, over 10,000 people working inside the country in various capacities having come on tourist visas."

President Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka's education system was being reformed to cope with the changing needs of the economy with technical education being given a boost.

The Rajapaksa administration has also been attempting to give back tertiary education freedoms to the people ending a state monopoly in degree awarding, which had prompted parents to send children out of the country at high cost, while unemployable graduates were generated at home.

Tens of thousands of graduates from tax-payer funded state universities who are unemployable in