Policy dilemma holds back Taiwan jobs for 3,000 workers
A file photo shows migrant workers at Zia International Airport after they were deported from Kuwait. Taiwan government's proposal to recruit 3,000 workers from Bangladesh a year, placed four years back, has not yet received any response from Dhaka.
Taiwan government's proposal to recruit 3,000 workers from Bangladesh a year, placed four years back, has not yet got any response from Dhaka, primarily owing to the government's foreign policy dilemma.
In 2004, Dhaka was formally informed of the Taipei interest to hire this amount of Bangladeshis every year in the backdrop of increasing demand for cheap labour in the Taiwanese job market.
“During the visit of our employment minister to Bangladesh, the proposal was submitted to the Bangladesh government to take workers from here to work in construction, textile and home-care sectors in our country,”Frank Wen-Yan Chen, representative at the Taipei Liaison Office in Dhaka, told The Daily Star recently.
He said the present interim government has not responded positively, although there was some progress in this regard during the BNP regime.
Frank Chen said the proposal is still valid, if Dhaka responds.
“Around 3 lakh foreign workers -- mainly from Vietnam, the Philippines and China -- are presently working in Taiwan,” Chen said, adding Taiwan can even accommodate more than three thousand workers, as proposed, because the demand is very high there.
Terming the proposal 'a gesture of friendship', the Taipei representative in Dhaka said, “If Bangladesh wants to send workers, it will need to open an office in Taiwan. This office may work with the Taiwanese government to issue visas to the job seekers.”
A high official at the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employments said the matter has some complications regarding foreign policy.
“The issue has been discussed with the foreign ministry; but the ministry is yet to reach any decision,” the official added.
Another high official of the ministry said Bangladesh maintains One China policy, so setting up a foreign consular office in Taipei, without changing government policy decision, is difficult.
“We are still working on the issue to reach a decision so that workers can go to Taiwan,” he added.
The bilateral trade balance is heavily leaning towards Taiwan. Bangladesh imports goods over $400 million, which include machinery, raw materials, electronic and intermediate goods, from Taiwan every year, whereas it exports goods worth only $15 million to that country.
Recently, some Taiwanese investors relocated several of their shoe and leather factories, valued over $300 million, from China to Bangladesh.
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