MANILA: Despite the global economic slowdown, 37,000 jobs still await Filipinos in Qatar, President Macapagal-Arroyo said.
However, the ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Nigeria, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon stays.
The president, who is in Doha, Qatar, on a three-day official visit, made the announcement as she expected “only a minimal displacement of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) despite the financial crisis sweeping across the globe.”
Some 20 million people may lose their jobs between the third quarter of this year and the end of 2009 as a result of the global financial crisis, the International Labor Organization said in October before the world economy further weakened.
Jobs have been gutted not only in industrialized economies like the United States and the European Union, but also in developing countries. Arroyo told Filipinos in Qatar that instead of retrenching its expatriate workforce, Qatar would need 37,000 more workers starting January.
Ms Arroyo announced the job openings at a luncheon with members of the Filipino community in Qatar at the Sheraton Doha Hotel and Resort shortly upon her arrival on Saturday. In a phone interview, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said about 20 CEOs disclosed job orders for 37,000 Filipino workers, which will start next month.
The job openings offset the displacement of Filipino workers in other countries, according to Ms Arroyo.
Malacañang said 1,000 Filipino workers in Taiwan were retrenched recently, while 5,000 others are expected to lose their jobs.
Arroyo said employers in Qatar and other Middle East countries preferred Filipino workers because of their diligence, trustworthiness, efficiency and skill.
But to prepare “for the unexpected,” she said, her administration had launched a P250-million Filipino Livelihood Support Fund to help displaced OFWs pursue their studies or engage in livelihood projects.
