PM in Malaysia to woo manpower export
Manpower export will be the prime focus of Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina’s three-day visit to Malaysia that began from today.
She will meet her Malaysian counterpart Najib bin Abdul Razak tomorrow to discuss the issue of hiring workers, said Sayedul Islam, counsellor (labour wing) at the Bangladesh mission in Kuala Lumpur, told The Daily Star.
A red carpet was rolled out as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reached Malaysia, UNB adds.
Malaysian deputy minister on human resources Haji Ismail Haji Abdul Muttalib and Bangladesh high commissioner to Malaysia AKM Atiqur Rahman received Hasina on her arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 3:55pm (local time).
She was given a static guard of honour by the Malaysian Armed Forces at the airport.
Later, the Prime Minister was taken in a ceremonial motorcade to Hotel Grand Hyatt at Kuala Lumpur where she will be staying during the visit.
Around 10:15am (Bangladesh time), a special flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, carrying the prime minister and her entourage, departed Dhaka’s Hajrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Finance Minister AMA Muhith, the cabinet secretary, chiefs of the three services, the IGP, the dean of the diplomatic corps and other civil and military officials saw the prime minister off at the airport.
Her entourage includes Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Engineer Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon, Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor and State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan.
Currently, Malaysia is hiring workers from Bangladesh for only plantation sector under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two governments in 2012.
Although the migration costs came down significantly under the deal, only some 8,000 Bangladeshis found plantation jobs since April last year.
Premier Hasina will address the issue of huge number of jobseekers waiting for employment opportunities in Malaysia, another top official at the Bangladeshi mission said.
Among other, there is an agenda of signing a Protocol Amending the MoU of 2012 between Malaysia and Bangladesh on the Employment of Workers for the recruitment of 12,000 workers to Sarawak province.
However, the recruitment process of these workers may take one or two months after the signing of the protocol, officials said.
The issue of offering another chance for some Bangladeshis who are still working as undocumented residents in Malaysia also may be addressed during the PM’s visit, they added.
Currently, around five lakh Bangladeshis are working at various sectors in the Southeast Asian country, according to Bangladesh government.
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