Development of skills to garner remittances

Thousands of our people have been leaving their homes in search of a bright future abroad where they hope to get jobs with higher income. More than jobs, the aspiring migrants are inspired by the allure of savings that they might be able to remit home. More than 7 million expatriate workers from Bangladesh are scattered all over the world - particularly in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia. Interestingly, these people are encouraged to undertake hazardous voyages because their relatives and friends have left such precedents.
Recently, contribution of expatriate Bangladeshi workers to the country's economy has increased through their remittances. Reliable sources have confirmed that Bangladesh received remittances worth $15.31 billion in FY2015 - the highest ever in our history and represented a remarkable increase of $1.8 billion over the level of FY2014.
This is indeed a commendable achievement despite a decline in the number of people leaving the country for overseas employment. According to The Financial Express, the number of migrants going abroad has dropped from a peak of 980,000 in FY2008 through 690,000 in FY2012 to a minimal 420,000 in FY2015. in the wake of the steady fall, Bangladesh needs to cope with an increasing number of workers coming back to the country.
Nevertheless, one can only assume that there has been an increase in remittance due to improved, efficient and well-regulated management of remittances from various sources. In addition, the migrant workforce has started to use more formal channels than the unlawful hundi system to repatriate their savings to Bangladesh. The modification of the banking arrangement initiated by Bangladesh Bank has been effective in persuading Bangladeshi workers to switch from the previous informal channels to the formal ones. The existing system has gained acceptance because the delivery channel of inward remittances to the beneficiaries has improved due to the extensive use of mobile banking by commercial banks as part of their facilitation measures.
Likewise, Bangladesh Bank has been allowing local banks to establish exchange houses and drawing arrangement abroad to assist the inflow of remittances. Hopefully, the stream of inward remittances will increase further in the next few months when manpower export to Malaysia restarts through private sector channels and labour recruitment resumes in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Evidently, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to Saudi Arabia in February has resulted in the positive lifting of the ban on iqamah (work permits) for expatriates from Bangladesh searching for jobs in the kingdom.
Today Bangladesh is a low-middle income country. The country has forex reserves worth more than $25 billion and is about to become the eighth-largest recipient of remittances in the world. Yet, one needs to give serious attention to the development of semi-skilled and skilled workforce in Bangladesh. We should move forward like the Philippines, India and Sri Lanka. This can be possible when we take the right steps to improve both the quality and associated skills in our education system. Skill development initiatives and vocational training should be introduced from the level of secondary education.
Bangladesh's Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) has revealed that the number of skilled manpower going abroad has fallen to 36 per cent in 2014 from 45 per cent in 2005. The number of professionals was 1.0 per cent of the exported manpower in 2005 which had fallen to 0.4 per cent in 2014. The rate of semi-skilled manpower, however, increased from 3.0 per cent to 47 per cent in 2014, compared to 44 per cent in 2005.
Currently, the government is highlighting the need for bilateral cooperation with Japan in developing the skill of Bangladeshi youth. 1,000 Bangladeshi technical interns will receive training in Japan under several apprenticeship programmes. Individually, they will be given a financial scholarship during their training tenure. On successful completion of their three-year training programme, the interns will also receive resources for setting up business ventures after their return to Bangladesh.
It is obvious that Bangladesh's migration potential will continue to grow. Gradually, a transfer has taken place within our rural hinterland where farmlands with an agriculture consisting of low productivity are moving towards higher productivity.
The government of Bangladesh should observe how citizens of India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka have made inroads in the construction, health, IT, management and numerous services sectors in overseas countries. They have succeeded because they initiated strategies to impart training for skill development at grassroots levels. Bangladesh needs to diversify in a constructive manner and make inroads in the development of semi-skilled and skilled professionals.
Our aspiring jobseekers abroad should also learn foreign languages other than English - Arabic, French, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian and Russian. There has to be a collective effort if the country wants to follow a constructive path in the development of its human resources, which may also help avert the tragedies involving human trafficking.
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