Rise in remittance boosts confidence

The world is going through economic convulsions with the prospect of a long drawn out conflict in Europe making us concede that in the days to come, we will have to live with austerity.

The rising inflation, abnormal exchange rate of the Dollar, abrupt increase of the price of fuel plus a forex reserve below $ 40 billion make a sobering picture compelling everyone to grasp the reality and prepare for hard times. However, even in these tough times, there’s news to celebrate.

As per a TBP report, Bangladesh received $2.04 billion in remittances for the second consecutive month in the current financial year. Earlier, in July, the country received $2.09 billion in inward remittances, an 11.17 per cent growth compared to the same month of the previous year.

The sector which has brought in the much needed foreign currency is the manpower export sector that saw a boom since last year as Bangladesh recovered faster than other nations from the Covid-19 pandemic. Countries which were main competitors in exporting manpower either put a cap on all manpower export due to health restrictions or were shunned by manpower importing countries.

Bangladesh made an example worth following in providing vaccine to record number of people in the shortest possible time while the general resilience of the working class people to Covid-19 was also something which was noted globally.

As a result, when other nations were still closed or were trying to inoculate the people, Bangladesh was open for business.

According to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) data, Bangladesh exported 6,17,209 manpower last year, which was around four times higher than 2020. During the first six months (January-June) of this year, manpower export was 6,91,017.

As per Bangladesh Bank data, in August, the highest $430 million remittances came through Islami Bank Bangladesh; $141 million through the City Bank; $132 million through the Agrani Bank and $114 million through Pubali Bank.

In a time of financial volatility, remittance from workers abroad is proving to be the lifeline. Since economists have given a bleak picture of the future, with warnings of a recession in developed nations, the priority of the Bangladesh government will be to explore new countries in need of skilled workers.

It’s an established fact that Bangladesh has been sending blue collar workers overseas, mainly to the Gulf states since the mid- 1970s; however, instead of just remaining satisfied with the low end of the overseas employment apparatus, more attention should be given to exporting skilled professionals with top notch communications skills, tech knowledge plus corporate expertise.

Bangladesh has been an independent nation for over fifty years and in the last twenty five years the nation has seen a burgeoning corporate sector that provided on the job training to professionals with degrees from best universities in the country and overseas.

These talents need to be showcased to the world and given a chance to compete with others. Also, the blue collar workers can be trained so they can compete for supervisory roles.

Bangladesh simply cannot remain content by the current state of affairs regarding manpower export because we are not offering the cream of this country for multinationals.

Taking the precarious global political scenario into consideration, the government must diversify and seek out special agreements with other nations to send professionals including doctors, engineers, dentists, communication experts and international diplomats.

While the UN takes peacekeepers from Bangladesh, the number of Bangladeshi professionals in top UN administrative posts are very few or non-existent.

This is where the next thrust of the government should be. In addition, making the optimum use of diplomatic channels to seek out job markets for our professionals overseas has become essential.