Bangladesh sends first batch of skilled workers to Uzbekistan

Bangladesh sent manpower to Uzbekistan today for the first-time.

The first batch of 239 Bangladeshi workers flew to the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan aboard a special aircraft of Uzbekistan Air at 10:30am from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA), Director of the airport, Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan, told The Daily Star.

Bangladesh's Ambassador to Uzbekistan Jahangir Alam said a total of 888 workers would go to the country on three special flights in a row -- through four recruiting agencies -- in the process of exporting skilled workers from Bangladesh.

Bangladeshi workers will work for an engineering company in Karshi, about 450 km from Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan.

Overseas labour market experts see the new development for these skilled labour exports to Uzbekistan positively.

Experts in the manpower sector said it is crucial for Bangladesh to look for new labour markets as the demand for foreign workers in the Gulf countries has been in decline due to various reasons including malpractices in the recruitment process.

Over the last few years, thousands of Bangladeshi workers have returned from different countries, especially from the Gulf.

Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad has said the government is taking initiatives to send workers to at least six new destinations.

Sources at the ministry said the government is looking for alternative job markets abroad as job opportunities in traditional markets drastically shrank in recent times.

In this context, the government initially set a target to send manpower to six countries -- Cambodia, Poland, China, Romania, Croatia and the Seychelles.

Besides, the government is also looking at exporting manpower to different central Asian countries.