Sources at the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment said the previous record was 2.68 lakh Bangladeshis getting jobs abroad in 1998. The number was 2.54 lakh in 2003 and it rose by 7.308 per cent last year.

The expatriate Bangladeshis sent home $ 3.54 billion in remittance last year, 11.42 percent higher than the previous year's $ 3.17 billion.

Manpower export to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the biggest importer of Bangladeshi workforce, however declined by 12 per cent last year compared to the previous year mainly because of some strict measures on sending workers there with lower wages structure. A total of 1.30 lakh workers went to the KSA last year for jobs as against the previous year's 1.49 lakh, the sources said.

The other major importers of Bangladeshi manpower last year were United Arab Emirates recruiting 42,006 workers, Kuwait 36,884, Bahrain 8,410, Singapore 6,307, Jordan 5,395 and Oman 4,025.

The number of overseas employment could have been much higher had Malaysia, a major importer of Bangladeshi manpower, opened its door to overseas workers, said a high official of the expatriate welfare ministry.

Around half a million Bangladeshis were recruited by Malaysia in mid-90s, most of whom came back home on expiry of their job tenure. Around 1.13 lakh Bangladeshis are now working in that country.

Kuala Lumpur had signed a memorandum of understanding with Dhaka in October 2003 for recruiting Bangladeshi workers but it is yet to go for this.

Several thousand Bangladeshis who were staying in Malaysia without valid documents returned home last year in the wake of Kuala Lumpur's threat of a crackdown on illegal foreign workers.

The latest deadline for the drive was December 31 and it was extended by a month after the recent tsunami disaster in some countries in the region, sources mentioned.