Some 345,000 Ethiopian citizens have secured overseas employments in the concluded Ethiopian Fiscal Year, Minister of Labor and Skills announced. The recently made Overseas Employments Reform has helped citizens to secure sustainable employment opportunities by protecting their safety, rights and interests. The bilateral employment agreements made with destination countries also creating good employer-employee relations while protecting the safety and rights of citizens. Labor Market Information System project coordinator at the Minister of Labor and Skills, Berhanu Aleka told ENA that efforts are underway to facilitate overseas job opportunities to Ethiopians. According to the coordinator, the number of jobs created abroad for Ethiopians doubled over the past 2 and 3 years following the measures taken to encourage legal ways of overseas employment and bilateral agreements reached with destination countries. During the just concluded fiscal year alone, overseas employments opportunities were created for 345,000 Ethiopian citizens, he added. Birhanu pointed out that the Ministry is providing training for the job seekers in collaboration with Technical and Vocational colleges to help them successful in their jobs abroad. The demand for job by foreign countries has also been increasing he pointed indicating the plan to increase the number of destination countries from to seven. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan and Qatar are currently providing legal employments; while Memorandum of Understanding was recently signed with Beirut and Kuwait to begin employment agreement. The ministry has also been exerting efforts are being carried out to expand legal overseas employments to Europe and Asia in addition to the Middle East. Source: Ethiopian News Agency