Following examples set by East-Asian countries, Bangladesh should prioritize human capital development as skilled and semi-skilled workers have the potential of generating greater remittance than what they presently earn, they observed.

"Non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) are already remitting huge amount of foreign currency every year. This area can be expanded even further," said A Imran Shauket, the country director of IRIS, a Job Opportunities and Business Support (JOBS) project, at a discussion held in Dhaka on Thursday.

JOBS/IRIS, a USAID initiative implemented by the IRIS Centre at University of Maryland, organised the discussion on the backdrop of a project that aims to identify sectors capable of generating healthy export revenues and have the potential to create jobs for large number of people.

A panel of experts from the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), the Export Promotion Bureau, the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) of Dhaka University, among others, took part in the discussion and identified 12 such key sectors.

The areas include handmade paper, jute-diversified products, skilled/semi-skilled labour, shrimp, footwear, fresh and dried vegetables, dried fruits and home textile.