We welcome the government’s plan to double the number of people being trained in skills centres for manpower export, from the present total of 74,000 persons a year.
Improving skills among the workforce is helpful not just to locally based industries but also to sustain and grow remittance earnings.
As part of a policy to create and encourage more skilled manpower, the government plans to ensure at least one skills centre in each upazila providing training in over 48 different trades. It has set a target to increase the number of people going abroad by 50% compared to its previous tenure, by establishing 27 new training institutes and five institutes of marine technology.
This increase in training provision is of vital importance for the economy as remittances, which stood at $13.84 billion in 2013, provide a valuable net inflow of foreign exchange.
While official remittances from the country’s 8 million expatriates, have tended to grow throughout changing economic cycles, economic turbulence in other countries and competition from other nations which export labour, make it imperative to boost the skills of our workforce in order to maxmise employment and income opportunities.
It remains important for the government to cultivate agreements with countries seeking labour, both among traditional destinations in the Middle East and Malaysia and further afield in places such as Eastern Europe and South Africa. However, it is the development of more skilled workers in different sectors, which will provide the best long term opportunities to sustain and grow remittances.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
