Team heads to Iraq by next week to explore manpower export

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Mashiur Rahaman
A top Bangladesh delegation heads to the war-torn Iraq by next week to tap into new manpower market as jobs dry up in the traditional employing nations, officials said Tuesday.
The team comprising government officials and private sector representatives would explore security situation in the main cities of Baghdad and Basra to pave the way for resumption of manpower export to the oil-rich nations.
Team leader Hazrat Ali, Additional Director General of the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), said they would make the tour by the beginning of next week. "We are now waiting for visa clearance," he added.
The move comes as the government is desperately looking for new manpower market for Bangladeshi workers after job opportunities shrank in the Persian Gulf and South East Asian nations due to the global economic recession.
Labour and employment minister Khandaker Musharraf Hossain said an Iraqi company has placed a demand for 1500 Bangladeshi workers and there would be openings for hundreds of thousands of labours as the Arab nation begins rebuilding its infrastructure and oil industry.
"We want to be among the first to go to Iraq. We are going to open up an embassy and a labour office in Iraq very soon, provided we get good feedback on security situation," he said.
Sitting on the world's second largest oil reserve, Iraq was once one of the largest employers of Bangladeshi workers, but the door was shut down after the first Gulf War in 1990.
But as security situation gets increasingly better in the last few months, desperate Bangladeshi have already landed in its main cities finding work in the construction and services sectors.
"We have information that thousands of Bangladeshi are already in Iraq, mainly in Baghdad and Basra. Some of them lost jobs in Dubai and were then recruited by manpower agents from Iraq," a BMET official said.
He said the team would also include construction company executives, exporters and bankers who want to explore market in the second largest economy in the Middle East.
"There are a lot of opportunities for Bangladesh construction companies in Iraq. They can compete with their Middle East counterparts for rebuilding work worth tens of billions of dollars," he added.