BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

MANPOWER EXPORT FROM BANGLADESH: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Author: Md. Abu Raihan, S. M. Mostafa Kamal

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2010v31n1a2

ABSTRACT

This paper attempts to analyze the trend of manpower export from Bangladesh and identify the factors responsible for the unrest in this sector. The paper also identifies the future challenges to be faced by this sector. Bangladesh is an overpopulated country under the growing pressure of unemployment and poverty. Employment scope is very meagre both in the formal and informal sectors. Export of surplus labour abroad has become a partial solution to the growing pressure of unemployment in the country where labour force grows at a faster rate than the rate of population growth. Manpower export has also become a good source of earning foreign exchange. But, this promising sector is now beset with many problems such as high migration cost, fraudulent practices of the manpower recruiting agencies, domination of unskilled labour export, lack of control of government on the manpower recruiting agencies, non-cooperation of our missions abroad etc. Added to this is the impact of ongoing global economic recession. In order to maintain the robust growth of our economy, it is essential to ensure the increasing trend of inflow of remittances which account for 56.09 percent of our export earnings and 10.02 percent of our GDP. Therefore, the government should attach top priority to contain the present success and widen the existing market. The future action for this purpose includes train up the unskilled and semi-skilled workers, producing more professionals, establishing transparency in manpower export, utilizing remittances for productive investment, reforming our missions abroad and exploring new markets for manpower export. In order to meet these challenges, the government should formulate a comprehensive manpower export policy in consultation with the concerned stakeholders and implement it strictly. Otherwise, the economy of Bangladesh is likely to face severe challenges in the future.