Manpower export up by 35 pc

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Economic Reporter ;
The manpower export scored a 35 percent rise over the last year’s level with sending 7.5 lakh workers this year, data showed
Dr Tasneem Siddiqui, founder-chairperson of the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) of Dhaka University disclosed it saying, 7,49,249 Bangladeshi nationals went abroad with jobs between January 1 and December 7, 2016.
“Most of them went to the Gulf and many middle eastern countries as well as the South-East Asian countries,” she told a press briefing at Jatiya Press Club on Wednesday.
Dr Tasneem Siddiqui, also a Professor of Political Science Department of Dhaka University, said the remittance inflow declined by 11 percent this year from the last year’s amount due to some reasons. “Bangladesh received remittance at $ 12.65 billion till November this year,” she said.
She said the reason for the remittance decrease is the devaluation of the country’s currency. This unsatisfactory exchange rate decreases the remittance rate and discourages the transfer of remittances via legal channels, she remarked.
According to a statement of the RMMRU, a Dhaka University-based migration study organization, 1,08,769 Bangladeshi women went abroad with employment this year, a rise by 16 percent over the last year’s number.
Quoting from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) information, the RAMMRU chairperson said around One Crore Bangladeshis went abroad with jobs since 1976.
She also said that a total of 1,038 recruiting agencies have been working with valid license in the country and 297 recruiting agencies usually send women workers, adding, BMET suspended 88 licenses of recruiting agency.
“The recruiting agencies formulated a policy to ensure ethical recruitment, but no agency is yet to face any action by Recruiting Agencies Association,” Dr Tasneem said.
Pointing out Probashi Kallyan Bank’s activities, she said the bank disbursed loans amounting to Taka 54 crore 85 lakh against 5,212 overseas job seekers out of 6,88,869 through 55 branches between January and October this year. Dr Tasneem said 1,21,000 overseas job seekers received training on different categories from training centers under BMET across the country.
Replying to a question, she said the government established institute of marine technology, technical training centres and provisionary training offices aimed at providing training to make workers skilled.
Dr Shadheen Malik, a senior lawyer, also spoke on the occasion.

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