Manpower export drying up

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According to statistics from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), manpower export from Bangladesh is very worryingly on the sharp decline. This is borne out by statistics from BMET that manpower export that was some 8,75,055 persons in 2008, plummeted to 4,75,278 in 2009.
Thus, the drop in a year only in manpower export was fifty per cent of the total number from the previous year. The nosedive in manpower export is seen as hardly arrested in 2010. The traditional large scale manpower hosting countries for Bangladesh such as the Arab middle eastern countries and Malaysia, have virtually stopped recruiting from Bangladesh. Only a trickle are seen going to these countries compared to the hordes that were going previously.
Growth of remittance figures did not show so much of a negative trend in this situation mainly because existing number of workers in those countries tended to send substantially greater remittances in this period. Perhaps their fear of job losses helped this development. But now even this advantage is gradually disappearing as the rate of manpower export is fast declining. BMET figures showed recently that that in the July-August period of the current fiscal year, 5.3 million dollars less remittance was received compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year.
There is every reason for the government to immediately start taking very seriously these wake up calls. The adverse trend in manpower export must be reversed at the soonest for the better. Otherwise, the country’s economy— specially its macro economy— will soon come to the brink of disaster.
The greatest positive input under the circumstances would be an effective diplomatic campaign from the government of Bangladesh leading to authorities in the traditional manpower importing counties, to once again wholeheartedly start welcoming our workers in large number.
M A Samad
Mohammadur, Dhaka