A significant amount of foreign currency flies out of Bangladesh each year as the country needs to spend foreign nationals working in Bangladesh, a top chamber leader said.
Hossain Khaled, president of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the short supply of locally produced skilled manpower is forcing the country to spend an estimated US$6.0 billion per year on the remunerations and benefits of foreign nationals working in the country.
He revealed the figures while speaking at a workshop dedicated to 'Opportunity out of Crisis,' organised by DCCI and LIM-Leadership, held Monday in the city.
Talking to The Financial Express on the sidelines of the workshop, Mr Khaled said the country lacks skilled top management and technical workforce, requiring the private sector to hire skilled professionals from abroad.
The DCCI chief said there is "nothing wrong in hiring foreign nationals if someone needs but there must be time limit of staying."
"Hiring skilled manpower from abroad cannot continue for a long time, local workforce must be trained and they (foreign nationals) must go back after a certain time," he said.
Majority of the foreign nationals are currently working in the industrial sector. The amount they are sending out as remittances is equivalent to almost a quarter of the country's inward remittance.
Remittances sent home by expatriate Bangladeshis reached more than $ 14 billion in fiscal 2013-14.
Speaking as the chief guest, Hossain Khaled said entrepreneurship cannot be created or taught, it is only be trained for betterment.
"Bangladesh does not lack resources, capital or workforce, what Bangladesh needs mostly is education and training for the best use of all it has," he said.
He said the LIM LLC is working to solve real business challenges and develop organisational leaders by using the methodology Action Reflection Learning (ARL) by introducing unique models for education and awareness.
Referring to a recent report of the World Bank, he said Bangladesh is the only country in South Asia, where growth in labor force outpaced growth in employment during the last decade. "Here lies the 'opportunity out of crisis' if we understand that," he said.
He said it is the prime time to give a leverage to promote a spirit of entrepreneurship by facilitating proper knowledge among this huge potential work force.
President of LIM LLC-USA Ernie Turner, Country Director of LIM Global Dr. Ahmed Shaikh Ashif, Vice President of DCCI Md. Shoaib Choudhury, Dr. Mohammad Mohiuddin, Dept. of Management of University of Dhaka and ICT Consultant from Singapore Deb Dutta also spoke at the workshop.
Ernie Turner said their mission is creating projects in partnership with the government and private sector to promote a spirit of entrepreneurship and replicate successful models for the rest of the country.
DCCI Senior Vice President Humayun Rashid said the best weapon against poverty, unemployment and poor standard of living is economic growth.
"Faster and higher economic growth is the universally proven and peddled prescription to overcome poverty and bring economic benefits to the greatest number of people in a country," he added.
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