COLOMBO — The number of Sri Lankan workers departing for South Korea so far this year has surpassed 5,000, growing by 44 percent compared to the previous year, a minister said on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Labor and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara said on social media that the figure showed the country’s commitment to enhancing employment prospects.

During a discussion with Nanayakkara in April, the director of the South Korean human resources department based in Sri Lanka agreed to provide 8,000 job opportunities for Sri Lankans in South Korea this year, exceeding the job quota of 6,500 offered earlier, local media reported.

This year, Sri Lankan workers’ remittance in August surpassed 499 million U.S. dollars, and the cumulative figure for the January-August period was around 3.9 billion dollars, a 74.4 percent increase compared with the same period in 2022, according to official data.

Workers’ remittance is one of main sources of foreign revenues for Sri Lanka. (Xinhua)