Staff Reporter :
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said that a plan has been made to ensure employment of 8.10 lakh Bangladeshi workers abroad in a bid to increase remittance earning and enhancing foreign exchange reserve.
Announcing the new allocation in his budget speech for the 2022-23 fiscal year in the Parliament on Thursday, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said that one of the major goals of the government would be to ensure dignified profession for Bangladeshi workers abroad.
He also said that the government also will provide skill development training to 5.20 lakh workers in different trades in the next fiscal year.
In order to ensure dignified profession for Bangladeshi workers abroad, it is necessary to ensure the quality of their training and skill.
The Finance Minister said that with this end in view, all the training programmes of technical training institutes and institutes of marine technology are conducted under the National, Technical and Vocational Qualification Framework (NTVQF) from current fiscal year.
Recognition of prior learning (RPL) activities have been taken up for effective use of the learning of the migrant workers from abroad and to simplify the process of increasing their salary in the overseas labour market, Finance Minister added.
Apart from this, Mustafa Kamal said, foreign language teaching courses are going on in the 43 Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs). In addition, for the purpose of bringing discipline in the immigration system three new online systems titled- Employee Connectivity Reporting System, On-line Grievance Management System, and Recruiting Agencies Information Management system (RAIMS) have been introduced.
The Finance Minister said that the government has taken up a range of initiatives for the welfare of both expatriate workers and workers returning from abroad. The discipline in the immigration system has been ensured by supervising the activities of the recruiting agencies on regular basis.
This sector has been completely digitalised through different programmes like- creating professional database for employee recruitment; scrutinising visa forms through mobile apps; separate portal for receiving grievance petitions migration and disposal on immigration and disposal;
automation of the activities of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).
AHM Mustafa Kamal said that a good number of activities are going on for the purpose of re-integration of migrant workers and providing soft investment loans for their self-employment.
He said that the government is providing educational scholarships to the meritorious children of the expatriates and providing medical assistance to the disabled expatriate workers on their return.
He said that a plan of action for establishing technical training institutes at every Upazila by phase has been taken up for inspiring the marginalised communities across the country.
The implementation of the project for establishing 100 technical institutes at Upazila level will start soon, he added.
