Manpower export from least developed districts
Thursday, 4 October 2007
Manpower export has turned out to be the country's most stable source of foreign exchange earner. Compared to other kinds of exports, the brighter side of the national income through manpower export is that its contribution towards alleviation of poverty is direct. The reason is the remittances made by the expatriate wage earners reach directly to their families in the countryside. Obviously, the economic activities that this foreign exchange earning generates in those areas create more employment for the local population.
Unfortunately, all the districts of the country are not equally fortunate so far as income from foreign remittance is concerned. A Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment statistics has shown that the share of manpower export is not uniformly distributed over all the regions of the country. The districts that are more developed have greater number of wage earners than the least developed districts. As a result, looked at from regional perspective, the income distribution from the foreign remittance is highly skewed. The statistics has further revealed that the northern and western regions of the country have fared worse than some eastern and southern districts, so far as earning from manpower export is concerned.
Of all the districts of Bangladesh, Comilla alone has 12 per cent share of the total manpower export made until January last. Chittagong and Dhaka, on the other hand, occupy second and third places in this respect with their shares of 9.0 and 7.0 per cent in the foreign remittance basket. In this respect, the contribution of the northern and western districts like Rangpur, Dinajpur, Rajshahi, Kushtia, Meherpur, Jessore, Khulna, etc., is very insignificant. The region-wise distribution of income from foreign remittance, as disclosed by the ministry of overseas employment, has again brought to focus the discrimination regarding distribution of national income over the different districts of the country. All the efforts towards national development, especially through poverty alleviation, lose their meaning when it is found that the development is not evenly distributed over the districts.
Meanwhile, to get over this regional bias of national income, the General Economic Division (GED) of the ministry of planning has made some recommendations towards increasing the western and northern regions' contribution in the national economy. The recommendations include incentives for the investors in the least developed districts as well as prioritising certain areas of entrepreneurship such as setting up new power generation plants and pipelines for natural gas. Understandably, these are the basic infrastructure of development through industrialisation. However, the more important aspect of the GED suggestions is that the incentives would also cover manpower export from the least developed districts of the country.
The suggestions made by the planning ministry towards development of the least developed regions of the country are commendable. But what is important on this score is that the ministry in charge of manpower export should come up with more specific and doable proposals for provision of necessary incentives to the agencies concerned as well as to the people of the locality. It has to be borne in mind here that abject poverty is the order of the day in the countryside of the northern and western regions. As everyone is well aware of, seeking an overseas job through manpower agents involves expenditure of a large sum of money. Where will the poor people of those areas get the money to pay the manpower agents? The manpower agents, on the other hand, are not all angels. So, the government will have to be circumspect while giving any incentive to the recruiting agents from those districts.
Unfortunately, all the districts of the country are not equally fortunate so far as income from foreign remittance is concerned. A Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment statistics has shown that the share of manpower export is not uniformly distributed over all the regions of the country. The districts that are more developed have greater number of wage earners than the least developed districts. As a result, looked at from regional perspective, the income distribution from the foreign remittance is highly skewed. The statistics has further revealed that the northern and western regions of the country have fared worse than some eastern and southern districts, so far as earning from manpower export is concerned.
Of all the districts of Bangladesh, Comilla alone has 12 per cent share of the total manpower export made until January last. Chittagong and Dhaka, on the other hand, occupy second and third places in this respect with their shares of 9.0 and 7.0 per cent in the foreign remittance basket. In this respect, the contribution of the northern and western districts like Rangpur, Dinajpur, Rajshahi, Kushtia, Meherpur, Jessore, Khulna, etc., is very insignificant. The region-wise distribution of income from foreign remittance, as disclosed by the ministry of overseas employment, has again brought to focus the discrimination regarding distribution of national income over the different districts of the country. All the efforts towards national development, especially through poverty alleviation, lose their meaning when it is found that the development is not evenly distributed over the districts.
Meanwhile, to get over this regional bias of national income, the General Economic Division (GED) of the ministry of planning has made some recommendations towards increasing the western and northern regions' contribution in the national economy. The recommendations include incentives for the investors in the least developed districts as well as prioritising certain areas of entrepreneurship such as setting up new power generation plants and pipelines for natural gas. Understandably, these are the basic infrastructure of development through industrialisation. However, the more important aspect of the GED suggestions is that the incentives would also cover manpower export from the least developed districts of the country.
The suggestions made by the planning ministry towards development of the least developed regions of the country are commendable. But what is important on this score is that the ministry in charge of manpower export should come up with more specific and doable proposals for provision of necessary incentives to the agencies concerned as well as to the people of the locality. It has to be borne in mind here that abject poverty is the order of the day in the countryside of the northern and western regions. As everyone is well aware of, seeking an overseas job through manpower agents involves expenditure of a large sum of money. Where will the poor people of those areas get the money to pay the manpower agents? The manpower agents, on the other hand, are not all angels. So, the government will have to be circumspect while giving any incentive to the recruiting agents from those districts.