BMET introduces digitised services

In a bid to make its services hassle-free, Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) is going to provide its emigration clearance card known as a smartcard to overseas jobseekers on a digital platform.

From now on, a QR-code containing smartcards will be available on the Ami Probashi app from where jobseekers will be able to download the card anytime and keep it stored in their smartphones.

Along with the bureau's three other digitised services, the smartcard service was officially launched during a ceremony at a city hotel yesterday.

"Smartcard is BMET's most important service... we are going to reduce human effort and make it digital with help of technology," Shahidul Alam, director general of BMET, said at the launching ceremony.

He said in the existing system, an aspirant migrant worker needs to submit at least 15 to 20 types of documents to get the smartcard, including a passport and visa, and undergo a biometric fingerprint enrollment process.

The hassles regarding losing the card have also reduced as jobseekers will be able to apply online and download the QR-code containing card a hundred times, he said.

Recruiting agencies will be able to submit the documents online round-the-clock, he added.

Shahidul said they will try to reduce their dependency on offline procedures in the shortest possible time.

The government launched the BMET smartcard, a tag with a computer chip, for overseas jobseekers in 2010 to ease the immigration process and help them more effectively while they are abroad.

The card contains all the information furnished in the passport, including a jobseeker's fingerprints and the licence number of the recruiting agency, so that the authorities can identify all the parties involved in the migration process and take prompt actions when needed.

A jobseeker obtains the smartcard when he or she has clearances from BMET after completing all the formalities.

The three other digitised BMET services, launched yesterday, are online enrolment at technical training centres and certification, online registration to a jobseeker's platform, and online registration and certification of pre-departure orientation training.

Jobseekers can avail of the four digitised services on the Ami Probashi app, which is developed and managed by the private organisation Ami Probashi Ltd and guided by the expatriates' welfare ministry.

Addressing the ceremony as chief guest, Expatriates' Welfare Minister Imran Ahmad said digitisation of the services would help in speeding up the recruitment process by reducing steps in between.

He also said there are various hidden costs in every step under the existing recruitment process and digitisation will also help migrant workers to reducing the migration cost.

"We have to ensure that the workers do not get duped," he further said.

State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak said remittance sent by expatriate Bangladeshis is one of the key pillars of the country's economy.

On the integrity and protection of its data, Secretary of Expatriates' Welfare Ministry Ahmed Munirus Saleheen said the data managed by Ami Probashi is "fully secured and owned by BMET".

By digitising its services, the ministry is trying to be more migrant workers friendly and transparent, he said.

Asif Saleh, executive director of Brac, said in the context of Bangladesh, migration is important, particularly in addressing rural poverty. He hoped migrant workers will be benefitted greatly from BMET's digitised services.

Abul Basher, president of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies, and Tarique E Haque, managing director of Ami Probashi Ltd, also spoke at the event.