Bangladesh is likely to face a remittance shortfall this fiscal ranging between nearly $ 800 million and $ 1.0 billion compared to last fiscal's earnings of $ 14.46 billion. The lower outflow of migrant workers is mainly responsible for such a declining trend in remittance inflow.
In fact, country's manpower export has been witnessing a slow trend since August 2012 following suspension of visa issuance by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Bangladeshi workers. Only 96,068 Bangladeshis entered the international markets with jobs during the last three months of the calendar year 2014, according to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).
It is to be noted here that some 409,253 Bangladeshis got overseas jobs in 2013 while the number was 607,798 in 2012 and 568,062 in 2011. The private recruiting agents blamed the government for its poor or ineffective initiatives to raise manpower export under the present circumstances. They claimed that Bangladesh could not properly take advantage of the job opportunities in Malaysia, Qatar and Bahrain. The country is also unable to open the 'closed' markets of Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait, they alleged.
Persistent declining trend in the overseas jobs is taking a heavy toll on the country's remittance earnings. The overall inward remittances could significantly be lower this fiscal year than that of the last fiscal. Since the country's remittance witnessed a 5.77 per cent negative growth in the first three quarters of this FY over the corresponding period of the last fiscal, it appears quite difficult to reach the last fiscal's earnings during the remaining quarter.
According to Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, Bangladeshi migrants remitted a total of US$ 10.48 billion during the July-March period of the FY 2013-14. The same was $11.12 billion during the corresponding period of FY 2012-13.
The government is reportedly taking various efforts in order to reverse the existing trend of overseas jobs. For raising the trend of increased labour migration, senior officials of the government recently held a meeting with the Bangladeshi ambassadors in various potential job markets in the Middle East and Libya. Another such meeting is expected to be held this month. The government is also trying to explore markets in Europe, Russia and Belarus as there is potential demand for foreign workers in those countries. The government, in the meantime, has increased the number of labour wings in the overseas Missions from 16 to 28 in the worker receiving countries. At present, around 8.6 million Bangladeshis are working in 159 countries. Workers' remittance constitutes 12 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
Manpower export started declining since 2009. What is worrying is that a large number of migrant workers returned home after job losses. The number of returnees has been rising followed by no worthwhile efforts in terms of either rehabilitating them or sending out fresh hands. The manpower and expatriate welfare ministry is now faced with the dual challenges of riding out the tide of job losses, shortening of contract periods or the tendency on the part of the employers not to renew service contracts on the one hand, and of exploring new job markets on the other. The standing committee on manpower export blamed flawed policies of the expatriate welfare ministry and the laid-back attitude of the country's Missions for the declining trends.
When Malaysia suspended work visa of 55,000 Bangladeshi workers in 2009, there was no state-level intervention to resolve the issue. Since then, Malaysian authorities recruited a large number of workers from Nepal. Similarly, Saudi government has shown keen interest to hire Indian and Nepalese workers for its various emerging sectors. The question thus arises: why are Nepali workers in high demand there?
It is argued that the Nepalese government had successfully propagated their people's image as hard working and loyal to the employers. And it is the failure of the Bangladesh government in projecting the true image of the nation abroad. A section of local media and government officials are unnecessarily active in projecting the country as a terrorist state. Such projection tends to leave a serious impact on overseas recruitment, as none would like to employ foreign nationals who belong to a society vulnerable to terrorism.
It is also a failure of the state-agencies to project the true image of the nation in the outside world. On its part, the government did something good for the welfare of the migrant workers. It has set up an expatriate welfare bank. This, no doubt, is a positive step towards looking after the welfare of the migrant workers. The authorities have established 30 new technical training centres and five new marine technology institutes in 35 districts, that are expected to produce 0.1 million skilled workers each year.
In fact, the manpower export sector deserves necessary incentives so that it can flourish and add substantially to the country's foreign currency reserve. The incidence of fradulence by a section of unscrupulous agents must be dealt with strictly.
What is important at this stage is that the manpower agents and the government should join hands not only to revive the demand for Bangladeshi workers in traditional destinations but also to explore new markets. However, it is to be noted here that most manpower-importing countries are interested more in employing skilled workers. The authorities should take pragmatic steps to create a productive manpower, properly trained in trades that are in high demand in those countries.
Experts say the government should take effective measures to resume the Saudi Arabian and the UAE markets. At the same time, it should come out from the government-to-government migration process in sending workers to Malaysia. They say, if the present migration trend continues for long, the country's remittances will be affected severely and the rate of unemployment will increase remarkably.
In order to stop the falling trend of manpower export, it is necessary to launch a vigorous diplomatic drive to persuade the traditional manpower importing countries to open their doors to the Bangladeshi workers. The Bangladesh Missions need to be restructured with a view to effectively dealing with the emerging situation.
szkhan@dhaka.net
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