Published in The Financial Express on Wednesday, 1 October 2014.
Govt efforts fail to reverse manpower export fall
Adverse impact on remittance inflow apprehended
Shah Alam Nur
A set of remedial measures taken by the government to revamp sluggish manpower export yielded nothing significant as the overseas job market for the country has been under a gradual squeeze, officials agreed with this finding.
Experts apprehend an adverse impact of this setback on the remittance inflow that had given a fillip to the country’s foreign-exchange reserves.
They pointed out “weak diplomatic manoeuvrings” with the manpower- recruiting countries and inadequate skill-development programmes as two major causes.
The situation was further exacerbated by the raging turmoil in the Middle East, the main destination for Bangladesh’s manpower export.
According to the statistics of Bangladesh Bank (BB), the remittance inflow declined 22 per cent to US$1.16 billion last August from $1.49 billion a month before.
The central bank data also show the remittance inflow down 1.61 per cent to US$14.23 billion in the fiscal year 2013-14 from $14.46 billion a year ago.
Experts are of the opinion that the manpower export to Gulf countries dropped drastically, and it affected the remittance inflow.
Some new destinations like South Africa, Latin America and East European countries could be potential market for Bangladeshi jobseekers.
But, the analysts said, the government “totally failed” to tap the potential.
They say the manpower market is gradually shrinking to some select countries for a lack of fruitful diplomatic negotiations with the recruiting countries.
To gear up the manpower export the government has taken a bundle of initiatives so far-too little effect, though.
The measures are: government-to-government (G-to-G) migration process, new market searching, strengthening diplomatic negotiations with employing countries, abolition of intermediaries and central database creation.
“The government has taken a bundle of initiatives to boost manpower export to several countries, which totally failed to deliver,” a vice-president of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) told the FE.
He said the country’s manpower sector is passing through hard times as recruitment almost halted to traditional and no-traditional markets.
He noted that the Middle East is a large destination for Bangladeshi expatriates but, in recent times, those countries have little opportunity as the gulf markets remained almost closed.
According to the data available with the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), a total of 270,181 Bangladeshis went abroad with jobs during the first eight months of this calendar year, down from 273,386 in the corresponding period of last year in a year-on-year slide.
The figures were 409,253 in 2013 and 0.607 million in 2012.
Large numbers of Bangladeshi expatriates target to go to the Middle-Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar and Oman as well as Singapore.
But those countries imposed restrictions on recruitment from Bangladesh and, as a result, there has been a drastic fall in immigration of outbound wage earners.
AHM Golam Kabir, managing director of Kabir Enterprise, a leading overseas employment company, said the government-to-government (G-to-G) migration process is one of the main reasons for the drastic fall in manpower export to several countries.
“The government has been taking many of initiatives to create new markets, including reopening the closed manpower markets, but the result is not visible.”
He holds the view that Malaysia could be a prime destination for Bangladeshi expatriates but the government “completely failed to avail the opportunity”.
He said that the overseas job seekers are passing a tough time as the gulf countries, the main destinations, have halted new visa issuance.
South Africa, Brazil and East European countries have potential to become lucrative destinations for Bangladeshi jobseekers, but the government could not show tangible activities to seize the opportunity, he added.
The BMET data showed more than 7.6 million Bangladeshis working in different countries, including in the Middle East, North Africa, Australia, Europe, Canada, the USA and the UK.
Dr Khandker Golam Moazzem, an additional research director at the civil-society think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said instead of dependence on selective countries, the government should go for market diversification in new destinations.
He said Bangladesh’s overseas manpower market is dependent on some select countries and, as a result, when those countries stop recruitment of Bangladeshis, the whole of manpower sector is affected.
“So, we now need to explore new markets to increase manpower export.”
Begum Shamsun Nahar, Director-General (DG) of the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training, said: “We have been searching new markets for jobseekers but still don’t have any good news for manpower sector.”
“For market expansion up till now, we have been trying to meet governments of several countries to negotiate but haven’t got any fruitful result.”
She mentioned that to increase employment generation abroad they have been taking many of initiatives, including effort to reopen the closed markets in UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
shahalamnur@gmail.com