Japan has agreed to recruit technical interns from Bangladesh in a deal seen crucial for the country's overseas employment sector, diplomats said.
The two Asian countries signed on Monday a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) for the hiring of technical interns from Bangladesh in Tokyo, Bangladesh embassy in Japan said in a statement.
But the statement didn't disclose the number of Bangladeshis to be employed in the industrial traineeship programme.
Nomita Halder, Secretary of the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment of Bangladesh and Vice Minister for Policy Coordination of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare Jinichi MIYANO And Administrative Vice Minister of Ministry of Justice Hiromu KUROKAWA and Director General, Consular Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan Koichi AIBOSHI signed the cooperation agreement on behalf of their respective countries.
Rabab Fatima, Ambassador of Bangladesh and other senior officials of Japan were present during the signing ceremony.
Bangladesh as the sending country of technical interns is the 7th nation that signed the agreement with Japan.
In her speech, Ms Halder said that the MoC will expand the opportunity for technical interns to acquire Japanese skills and knowledge in the list of 77 occupations and 137 selective functions and later get a job in Japan for three to five years. Finishing the job technical interns will transfer the technical know-how to Bangladesh and can contribute to the nation, Ms Halder added.
Japan has a shortage of workforce in the construction, manufacturing, garments, agriculture, food processing and care-giving sectors.
"We are here to explore how to match our abundance of skilled and semi-skilled workforce with Japan's manpower shortage," said Ms Halder. She noted that the government is taking various initiatives to help technical interns in this respect.
Following the signing of the agreement, a bilateral meeting between the delegations of the two countries was held on Monday at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan to discuss bilateral issues regarding human resource development of Bangladesh.
