It is widely believed that Bangladesh lacks natural resources and our overall growth and development are largely deterred due to limited resources. When we talk about natural resources we mean our mineral resources like gold, oil, gas, iron, etc. The perceived notion we have been retaining in our mind for years is 'population is not our resources; it is our curse'.
Now it is time to revisit our long-persistent belief and take the population issue in a different slant. Among the four factors of production in elementary economics- land, labour, capital and organisation- labour is the most important one, without which any goods and services cannot be produced. Since Bangladesh is abandoned with a huge labour force with comparatively cheaper and easier accessibility, many countries prefer Bangladesh as the lucrative source of this labour factor. So, we should rather believe we are fortunate, because we have a huge population that many countries do not have. It's true that most of our labour force is unskilled or uneducated. But it is not our fate, it is our failure. We have the opportunity to convert this huge labour force into human capital. We can make them skilled and eligible and export them to overseas markets to earn foreign currencies.
Banks in Bangladesh can play a vital role in shaping our manpower as resources. For this, they need to form a four-party understanding - amongst the banks being the fund providers; training institutions being the skill trainer, recruiting agencies and government. Banks will extend project loans to the training institutions for building up required infrastructure of education and training across the country. It will also provide Working Capital support for logistics as well as operational expenses of the institutions. Local branches may also consider extending personal loans to the individual workers to accommodate costs of training and auxiliaries' vis-à-vis visa, ticketing, etc. The end part i.e. placement of the workers in overseas destination will be done by the recruiting agencies. The workers abroad will be compelled to remit their wages through the lending banks. The government will make an arrangement with respective countries or foreign employers in this part. Banks will adjust loan installments from a portion of the fund remitted and the remaining slice will be allowed to be withdrawn by the ultimate beneficiary, the worker's family. The entire process should be controlled and monitored jointly by the government authority and lending banks. The government should be required to provide sort of guarantee to the banks in favour of borrowers i.e. training institutions against bank loan. In such a planned and organized way, a bank can increase its business portfolio by way of disbursing loanable funds, receiving a huge amount of foreign remittance and creating a low-cost deposit base in the workers' accounts. Private banks may establish separate branch offices or unit offices in the rural areas for processing such loans and other services to the wage earners.
Bangladesh has put lot of focuses on SMEs but very little is done yet for our ill-fated unskilled labourers. We witness a big gap between demand and supply of skill labour in the overseas markets. Bangladesh with huge stocks of the labour force can take this opportunity and make foreign currency earnings simply double or triple within few years by exporting trained, educated and skilled labourers to overseas destinations. We know the present government has a visionary and challenging target to make our beloved nation a developed country. We believe it is high time to take a plan, draw the strategy and finally take the initiatives to make the dream materialised. Banks of the country may a part in making this dream happen and bringing about a miraculous change for the whole nation.
Md. Kamruzzaman is a bankerand columnist.
kzaman906698@gmail.com
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