Papua New Guinea keen to recruit Bangladeshi workers

The visiting Labour and Industry Minister of Papua New Guinea, Mark Maipakai, has shown interest to recruit a large number of Bangladeshi workers.
Maipakai, who led a seven-member delegation, met with acting secretary of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Dr Jaffar Ahmed yesterday and made an informal proposal to recruit Bangladeshi workers for Papua New Guinea's infrastructure and gas sectors.
Emerging from the meeting, Dr Jaffar told that Maipakai said they would propose formally soon after forming a joint company comprising of the government of Papua New
Guinea (PNG) and the Bangladeshi community in Papua New Guinea to recruit Bangladesh labourers.
Maipakai said huge manpower is needed for the infrastructure and gas sectors of Papua New Guinea.
Dr Jaffar said Bangladesh would set up six more labour wings in its missions in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Sudan, Italy and Japan.
This will raise the number of Bangladesh's labour wings to 19 abroad.
At present, only about 500 Bangladeshis work in Papua New Guinea, whereas over 10 lakh Chinese, three lakh Sri Lankans and two lakh Indians work there. The population of Papua New Guinea is only six million.