Govt trying high to expand manpower mrkt
Reza Mahmud :
While remittance inflow recorded a year-on-year growth of 48.9 percent in the beginning of November, the overseas employment fell by 18.46pc in October compared to the previous month and by 25.6pc year-on-year, creating anxiety of continuing remittance inflow.
Sources said, in a bid to keep the remittance inflow speedy, the government eyes the Japanese labour market which needs 11 million foreign workers. Additionally, the government asked Malaysia to ease its conditions for sending Bangladeshi workers there.
The latest data released by Bangladesh Bank (BB) on November 4 showed, the remittance inflow reached US$350 million in the first 3 days of this November.
During the same period last year, remittance receipts stood at US$221 million.
From July to November 3, 2025, expatriate Bangladeshis sent a total of US$10,475 million, compared to US$9,159 million during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.
The data from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) showed, the country’s overseas employment fell by 18.46pc in October compared to the previous month and by 25.6pc year-on-year.
Sector insiders attribute the decline mainly to Saudi Arabia’s introduction of a mandatory skill certification requirement for low-skilled workers under its Skill Verification Program (SVP) — commonly known as Takamul.
In October, Bangladesh sent 78,027 workers abroad, down from 95,694 in September.
Saudi Arabia hired 40,612 Bangladeshi workers — the largest share among destination countries — but this figure represents a 32pc drop from the previous month.
Stakeholders including Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) shared their disappointment saying most of the overseas doors of Bangladeshi aspirant workers are closed including the major destinations United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Bahrain, Malaysia, Brunei and such others.
These reflect the lower manpower exporting recent time.
When contacted, Freedom Fighter Ali Haider Chowdhury, former Secretary General, BAIRA and Director, East West Human Resource Center Ltd.
told The New Nation on Friday, “The authorities should try to open the closed doors of most destinations fast as a short term action. As a long term plan, the government should change the national curriculum adopting hi-tech skill related teachings.”
The BAIRA leader said the implementation of the Takamul certification has slowed worker deployment.
Low-skilled workers such as loaders and unloaders now need skill certificates, but the certification process jointly managed by BMET and Saudi authorities is not yet operating at full speed, BAIRA leaders said.
Currently, 26 Technical Training Centres (TTCs) in Bangladesh are authorised to conduct the SVP across 73 trades approved by the Saudi government. BMET operates around 110 TTCs in total.
They said, Saudi Arabia recently made SVP mandatory for low-skilled workers, posing new challenges for overseas employment.
The requirement has been temporarily eased for certain categories, such as cleaners, following requests from Bangladesh.
Saudi Arabia remains Bangladesh’s largest overseas employment destination, hosting over 3.2 million Bangladeshi workers, according to unofficial estimates.
More than 80pc of them are engaged in low-skilled jobs such as cleaning, construction, and domestic work, earning an average of Tk30,000 per month.
Recruitment in other destinations remains limited, ranging between 1,000 and 11,000 workers per country. In October, Qatar, Singapore, the Maldives, Cambodia, Kuwait, and Jordan ranked among the top destinations, with recruitment figures from 1,380 to 11,400 workers.
As a bid to expand new destinations, Bangladesh eyes Japan’s labour market as demand for 11 million foreign workers looms Bangladesh has underscored its potential as a major source of skilled manpower for Japan, which is projected to need around 11 million foreign workers by 2040.
To this end, the Embassy of Bangladesh in Tokyo organised a seminar followed by a business matching event at a conference centre in Nagoya, Japan. The event was supported by the Japan International Trainee and Skilled Worker Cooperation Organization (JITCO).
Dr Neyamat Ullah Bhuiyan, Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, attended as the chief guest. Around 250 manpower-sending and recruiting organisations participated in the seminar.
Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Japan, Md Daud Ali, assured full cooperation from the Embassy in facilitating the deployment of skilled Bangladeshi workers to Japan.
On the other hand, the government of Bangladesh has urged Malaysia to ease three out of the ten conditions imposed on Bangladeshi recruiting agencies wishing to send workers to the country.
The request was conveyed in a letter sent on 4 November by Asif Nazrul, Adviser to the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, to the Malaysian authorities.
According to official sources, Bangladesh asked for relaxation of the conditions requiring recruiting agencies to have managed at least 3,000 overseas workers in the past five years, to own a training centre, and to maintain a permanent office space of no less than 10,000 square feet over the last three years.
The ministry also requested an extension of the deadline for submitting the list of recruiting agencies.
Earlier, on 28 October 2025, Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a letter to the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, directing it to provide by 15 November a list of Bangladeshi agencies eligible to send workers—based on ten mandatory criteria.