Bangladesh manpower ban 'to go'

Labor Minister Adel Fakeih said on Monday that the Kingdom will soon resume the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers to the Kingdom. The decision comes after a 2008 ban that prohibited laborers from being brought in from that country. During a one-hour meeting on Sunday, Fakeih met at his office with Bangladesh Minister for Expat Welfare and Overseas Employment Khandker Mosharraf Hossain. Following the meeting, Fakeih expressed optimism about the improvement and development of the relationship between the two ministries. Pointing out that he was mainly interested in hiring skilled manpower from Dhaka, he stressed the need to find appropriate procedures and mechanisms in the deployment of the Bangladeshi work force in the Kingdom which would benefit the people of both countries. He emphasized that there was a strong need to improve the efficiency and quality of foreign manpower deployed in the Kingdom which would eventually contribute to the development of the nation. Fakeih also stressed that prospective workers to the Kingdom should undergo orientation programs back home in addition to proper skills tests in their respective vocations in the Kingdom. The minister underscored the transparent mechanism of the recruitment process with online verification by all parties involved. The Bangladeshi minister said that his country has a data center which has registered more than 2.2 million workers for foreign employment. “These workers have undergone the necessary training to support their respective vocations,” he said, pointing out that the skilled workers are also sent from Dhaka to countries such as Malaysia, South Korea and Hong Kong. Hossain said that Fakeih expressed Saudi Arabia’s readiness to open up the local labor. -Arabnews