Bangladeshi manpower export down

The number of Bangladeshi nationals going abroad with jobs has declined significantly in 2009 with the little signs the trend will reverse next year, according to sources in the sector. About 4.5 lakh people secured overseas jobs in 2009 compared to their number at 8.75 lakh in 2008 and 8.32 lakh in 2007, showed statistics available with the expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry. The fall in export of manpower may not affect immediately earning from remittances but it is likely to decelerate in medium and long terms unless new markets are opened and the old ones consolidated, said recruiting agents. The decline in manpower export has been attributed to the impact of global recession which slowed down job-creating activities in many countries that used to hire overseas migrant workers. Moreover, sources in the manpower sector blamed the government's diplomatic failure in persuading the Middle East countries to recruit Bangladeshi workers – both old and new – in large numbers. Foreign policy expert Akmal Hussain stressed the need for undertaking vigorous diplomatic efforts to promote the country's s economic interests by approaching the leaders of the countries of present and potential destinations of Bangladeshi workers. 'We have not seen meaningful initiatives during the present government in its Middle East diplomacy that could have brought us certain favour in terms of sending more Bangladeshi people with jobs,' said Hussain, a professor of International Relations at Dhaka University. A source in the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agents said that the Awami League-led government should have used Jatiya Party chairman HM Ershad, its ally, as an emissary to convince the Middle East governments to look at Bangladesh positively. However, the overseas employment ministry hopes that Bangladeshi workers would be able to secure jobs in 'newly opened' markets such as Romania, Libya, Austria, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Botswana, Iraq, Angola and South Africa. The ministry, in its report-card prepared to mark the one-year of the government, listed some domestic steps to support overseas jobseekers, ease the recruitment process and also provide incentives to remittance earners. 'We expect the government to create opportunities for recruiting agents to serve the people. We can work for increasing the number of workers if there is scope for negotiating with overseas employers,' said Kazi Mohammad Mofizur Rahman, secretary general of the apex body of recruiting agents. He expressed the hope that the inflow of remittances might not be affected significantly because of resilience of Bangladeshi workers to adversities to retain jobs and send money in times of crisis. 'But what may be the cause for concern for us is the employment situation. Any slump in manpower export today will further worsen the unemployment problem in the country,' the BAIRA leader said. In 2009, another year of international financial crisis that affected development activities, including construction, Bangladesh is expected to receive about $10 billion, as against $9.5 billion earned from remittances in 2008. In its quarterly economic update, the Asian Development Bank pointed out that growth rate of remittances dropped significantly to 34.4 per cent during the July-November period of 2009 compared to 33.6 per cent during the corresponding period of 2008. 'The growth of remittances is expected to moderate further in the months ahead as the growth of new migrants slows,' the Manila- based financial institution forecasts.