Foreigners draw salaries worth $6 bn a year from Bangladesh: Experts

Experts in a workshop said that one in every three people in Bangladesh is now aged from 10 to 24 years old and around 2.2 million of them enter the labour market annually.

A majority of these job seekers remain either unemployed or get engaged in low-income jobs due to inadequate skills.

However, semi-skilled and high-skilled foreigners are drawing more than $6 billion in salaries from Bangladesh every year, the experts added.

National Skill Development Authority (NSDA), an institute under the office of the prime minister, organised the workshop titled "Formulating the National Action Plan for Skill Development" at a hotel in Dhaka.

The workshop was arranged to address the skill gap in several sectors of Bangladesh and identify proper spaces to build-up skilled manpower for different industries, providing proper training.

In his speech as chief guest of the inaugural session of the workshop, prime minister's private industry and investment advisor Salman F Rahman said, "Only skilled labour is not sufficient, but a proper working environment is also necessary to survive in a competitive market."

"The government had a chance to send skilled workers to Japan recently and some labourers upgraded their skill by training as well, but the opportunity was underutilised due to lack of proper coordination," he added.

He further said foreigners are being employed in the mid-level posts of readymade garment industry even after three decades have passed since the industry flourished.  

Salman F Rahman emphasised on upgrading the skills of human resources to employ them in different industries at home and abroad.

Najibur Rahman, principal secretary to the prime minister, said, "Bangladesh is now in the era of demographic dividend, but the dividend is out of reach due to lack of skilled manpower."

Md. Selim Reza, secretary of Ministry of the Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment, Md. Faruque Hossain, executive chairman of NSDA, also spoke at the workshop.