Year 2010 opens great door of opportunities for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who would like to earn a greener pastures in Australia.

Labor secretary Mariantio Roque announced that Australia will hire thousands of Filipino skilled workers as the Philippines and the government of Australia will sign a labor agreement this January, 2010.

The government earlier announced that about 300,000-500,000 Filipinos are expected to get hired in Australia for the next three to five years.

Roque will go to Australia this month to sign the agreement for the proposed hiring of thousands of Filipino professionals.

The agreement covers quality and high paying-jobs for qualified Filipinos to work in Southern Australia.

“Those who would qualify for the jobs would get at least $4,000 monthly salary and there would be no placement fee," Roque said.

There are more than 200,000 Filipinos in Australia work mostly as nurses, doctors, welders, engineers and other skilled professions.

Aside from Australia, Roque said that other countries especially in the Middle East are expected to hire more skilled Filipino workers this 2010.

Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries are said to offer jobs for engineers, construction and hotel workers.

But local recruitment agencies said the expected passage of the amended Migrant Workers Act may lead to downtrend in hiring of OFWs in 2010.

Lito Soriano, a recruitment consultant, said the proposed law approved by the bicameral committee mandates that the country would deploy workers only to countries with existing bilateral agreements with the Philippines. Only 14 out of 194 nations have bilateral relations with the Philippines.

Likewise, recruitment leaders reported that the recent decision of Japan Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to postpone the implementation of the agreement on the establishment of a US military facility in Okinawa may also imperil the hiring of more OFWs in the coming year.

The Philippine government is hoping to capture at least 20,000 jobs for Filipino construction workers in Japan with the start of the construction of the US facility there.