BANGKOK: A top-level Thai government delegation was due to arrive in Saudi Arabia later this month to sign a labor cooperation agreement, a leading official said on Friday.
And the first group of workers from Thailand was expected to join the Saudi job market in May.
Saudi Arabia used to be a popular destination for Thai expats, with more than 300,000 of them living and working in the Kingdom until relations between the two countries stalled in the 1980s.
Ties were renewed in late January, following Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s visit to Riyadh on the invitation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which was the first top leadership meeting between the two kingdoms in more than three decades.
The Thai government has since approved two draft agreements on legal labor recruitment for Saudi Arabia, while a Saudi delegation arrived in Bangkok earlier this week to meet representatives of the Thai Ministry of Labor as they were finalizing the deal.
“Thailand’s minister of labor has accepted an invitation from Saudi Arabia’s minister of human resources and social development to visit and sign the agreement on March 28,” Surachai Chaitrakulthong, assistant to Thai Labor Minister Suchart Chomklin, told Arab News.
“If we sign the agreement on March 28, we can start the selection process in April and possibly the first group will be able to go to Saudi Arabia in May,” he saaid.
When the agreement is signed, ministry representatives will tour workplaces and businesses which can hire Thai workers.
As Thai officials were assessing the qualifications and skills of potential workers versus available employment opportunities, more than 1,000 job seekers had already applied to work in Saudi Arabia, Chaitrakulthong added.
“The ministry is interviewing them as we are seeking high-skilled laborers to be working in Saudi Arabia.”
He added that the preferred sectors were engineering and construction — especially welding — as well as healthcare.
Currently, there were only around 1,350 Thai workers in Saudi Arabia, employed mainly as technicians and household staff, according to the ministry’s data.