After six months of work and study in South Korea, 472 seasonal workers from Dinagat Islands are back and ready to practice their newly acquired knowledge of modern technologies in agriculture and fishery.

Governor Nilo Demerey Jr. led an awarding ceremony for the returning workers over the weekend and called them the “new heroes of the province.”

“The income of our seasonal workers sent home helped spur the local economies in our towns and even the barangays,” Demerey said in a phone interview on Monday.

The seasonal workers flew to Pyeongchang County and Sokcho and Yeongwol provinces in South Korea early in May this year to work in the different farms and fishery industries.

Part of their mission was also to learn new farming and fishing technologies that they could apply and share with the farmers and fishermen in the province.

They were sent to South Korea through a memorandum of understanding signed in November last year. The program is a tripartite effort of the Dinagat provincial government, the local government of Pyeongchang County and the Provincial Board Members League of the Philippines.

“The provincial government will continue to work with the returning seasonal workers, especially in applying the cutting-edge farming and fishery technologies they learned from their time in South Korea,” Demerey said.

He said the empowerment of the farmers and fishermen in Dinagat through international exposure and knowledge exchange is among the priorities of the provincial government.

Next year, some 3,000 seasonal workers from the province are also expected to fly to South Korea to work and study. (PNA)

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