Forma # 1.ai - ICAB

• Government should continue
the dialogue with major
labour‐importing countries,
particularly in the Middle East,
to allow change of jobs by
Bangladeshi migrant workers
(without transfer fee). A recent
study projects that about
500,000 people, in different
workmanship categories, will
be needed in Saudi Arabia for
the ongoing construction of
new cities.101 The awarding of
Qatar, to host the Football
World Cup 2022 is also likely
to create hundreds of
thousands of jobs in the
construction sector.
Negotiations should be
initiated so that Bangladesh is
able to take advantage of these
emerging opportunities.
• Efforts should now be
strengthened so that
Bangladesh is able to cater to
the emerging needs in new
markets for migrant workers in
the developed world,
particularly in caring services,
nursing, medical technicians,
etc. Besides, countries such as
Qatar and the UAE are likely
demand more workers in the
professional and highly‐skilled
categories for the
service‐and‐knowledge based
economy that they are trying to
build.102 To access such
opportunities, a time‐bound
plan should be put in place so
that workers willing to travel
abroad have the opportunity to
undergo skill upgradation
training.
• Available reports suggest that
demand for migrant workers is
set to go up also in South Korea
and in Libya. Unfortunately
though, only 1,409 people
went to South Korea during the
first five months of FY2010‐11
(however, this number was
more than double the number
that went to Malaysia during the
same period) and none to Libya
(whereas more than 12
thousand people went to the
country during the last six
months of FY2009‐10). Efforts
should be made to exploit the
opportunities in the Libyan
market. In recent times, people
from Bangladesh have started
to go to a number of African
countries including Angola,
Algeria, Nigeria, Botswana, and
South Africa. In view of the
ongoing deceleration in
manpower export to the
traditional markets, policy
emphasis should be put to
facilitate increased migration to
these new and emerging
markets.
• World Bank (2010)103
estimates indicate that
low‐income countries will
attain an average of 8.2 per
cent growth in remittance in
2010 and the forecasts are that
in 2011 and in 2012 the
growth rates could reach 8.7
per cent and 9.0 per cent
respectively. Bangladesh’s
current growth rate of
remittance is way below the
levels suggested by these
optimistic projections. There is
thus an apprehension that
Bangladesh is not being able to
take advantage of the emerging
global opportunities. If
Bangladesh is to match the
expected performance of the
low income countries and
attain growth rate of about 8‐9
per cent by the end of FY2010‐11,
it will have to maintain a
monthly average growth rate of
24 per cent during the
remaining period of
FY2010‐11. Indeed,
Bangladesh should carefully
study the policies pursued by
other countries in this regard
and draw the necessary
lessons.
• Strict monitoring and
implementation of processing
and visa fees which is fixed by
the government is urgently
required. Because of
excessively high expenditure
that a Bangladeshi worker has
to incur, length of stay abroad,
level of wages, timely payment
of wages, and opportunity for
working overtime are critically
important for the workers.
Rationalisation of cost of
migration and ensuring
compliance of the same by the
recruiting agents must be given
high priority on the
government’s agenda. Work of
the recruiting agencies should
be monitored on a regular
basis. If agencies are found to
be involved in malpractice
such as failure to provide
appropriate and truthful
information to aspirant
workers, these should be
strictly dealt with and those
responsible should be legally
obliged to pay the due
compensation to the migrant
workers.
The Bangladesh Accountant January - March 2011 35