A total of $735,000 has been transferred to Malawi from the Israel labour export arrangement as of Wednesday, Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda has said.
This represents a $260,000 jump from the $475,000 reported on January 31.
Malawi has about 750 youths working in Israel and intends to grow the number to over 5,000.
Chithyola Banda said it was encouraging to see that the labour export deal has started bearing fruits.
Last week, Israeli Ambassador to Malawi Michael Lotem, who is resident in Kenya, told Times that his country has engaged Malawian labour authorities in a bid to strike a government-to-government labour export deal to the Middle East country.
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Lotem said the arrangement would be good for the protection of the workers.
“Now we are in the process of negotiating a government-to-government arrangement with the Malawi Government and we hope that it will be concluded fast because both sides have an interest,” the envoy said.
He also noted that the new arrangement will eliminate the various fees that migrant workers were paying to labour recruitment agencies and that it will promote transparency.
Lotem said the demand for labour is huge in Israel in areas such as agriculture and construction.
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Delivering a State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Friday, President Lazarus Chakwera said “what is most exciting” is that authorities are now on course to sign the government-to-government agreement with Israel.
Chakwera said the deal is aimed at exporting 100,000 young people to go and work in that country, which will translate to $6 million a year in remittances.
