Foreign Employment and Remittances to Bangladesh

Foreign employment and remittance of Bangladesh

Foreign employment and remittances have a lot of contributions in reducing unemployment, poverty reduction, foreign currency reserve and overall countries economic development. Most of the migrant workers of this country work in Middle East countries. The government has established Probashi Kallyan Bank to encourage immigrants on investing to this country. They also provide financial help to labor export and improve their skills.

The total number of foreign workers is about 12000000 who are working on about 173 countries. In the year 2018-19, the total immigrant worker went abroad was 659043 and total remittance collected at that time was $16.42 billion. From them, the male is 551478 and the female is 107565.

Total foreign employment and remittance

Fiscal year	Employee	Remittance ($million)
2014-15	453398	15316
2015-16	672721	11053
2016-17	904297	12769
2017-18	867128	14956
2018-19	659043	16420

Export of class-based manpower of Bangladesh

Here is the date of the last three years. This data shows that the export of manpower has reduced in 2018-19.

year	Professional	Skilled	Semi-skilled	Less efficient
2016-17		409448	107733	376873
2017-18	3366	330822	54533	478407
2018-19	2073	252862	27007	377102

In the year 2018-19, we export 1% professional, 4% semi-skilled, 38% skilled and 57% less efficient manpower.

Countrywise exports of Manpower and Remittance in Bangladesh

The total Bangladeshi overseas worker is about 12 million which is working in 173 countries. In the fiscal year 2018-19, the total 659043 workers went abroad as a worker from them male 551478 and female 107565. In 2018-19 this country sends workers to some new countries; those are Japan, Bolivia, Croatia, Burundi, Romania, Cambodia, Cicely, etc.  The most favorable destination of immigrant workers in Bangladesh in 2018-19 is Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Amirah, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Jordan, Maldives, Malaysia and Singapore.

Overseas employment of Bangladeshi workers in 2018-19

The Total achieved jobs in the fiscal year 2018-19 are 659043.

Country	Workers
Saudi Arabia	301325
Malaysia	84211
Qatar	72497
Oman	72222
Singapore	45186
Iraq	19538
Jordan	15190
Kuwait	13271
Maldives	8655
others	27,117

Remittances sent by country-based expatriate Bangladeshis

The total remittances sent by Bangladeshi people in 2018-19 is $16.42 billion which is 9.61%higher than 2017-18.

 Country-based remittances of 2018-19 (million$)

Country	Remittances ($million)
Saudi Arabia	3110
UAE	2540
USA	1843
Kuwait	1463
Malaysia	1198
UK	1176
Oman	1066
Qatar	1024
Italy	758
Bahrain	470
Singapore	368
South Korea	112
Japan	50
Hong Kong	20
Others	1122
Total	16420

Steps were taken for an increase in overseas employment and Remittances

(a) Expand labor markets

     Middle-East is one of the top overseas employment markets for Bangladesh. Because of political instability, the labor demand for those areas has reduced and Bangladesh is facing huge difficulties in exporting laborers. So, this country is searching for new labor markets in different countries and expanding its labor markets.

Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas employment establish a new research cell to expand the migrant workers’ market. Because if those activities, this country has opened a new labor market in the new 63 countries. To ease exporting labor forces this country strengthen Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited.

(b) Sent workers on G2G

• The government sends housemaids to Jordan with no cost and sends garments workers there with a little cost.
• BMET and BOESL are sending workers abroad at a minimum cost.
• The total cost to South Korea of migrant workers is only 68 thousand takas.

(c) Establishment of Probashi Kallyan Bank

The government are providing financial helps to the people who are eager to go abroad and who are returning from abroad. This is a specialized government bank which provide loans to migrant workers.

(d) Welfare activities for migrant workers

Governments are helping to return back dead migrant workers; provide financial help to that family and helps to collect compensation and insurances. It also helps in collecting salaries, returning back detained workers, and provide essential securities.

(e) Modernize migration system

The government are reducing the effect of brokers by establishing a digital fingerprint database. This database is matching data with a national database and prints embarkation card easily in airports.

(f) Encourage people to send remittance on a valid channel

• The government are providing a 2 percent incentive on remittance which comes using valid channel.
• Commercial banks are setting up relations with foreign exchange houses with the advice of the government.
• There is 34 exchange house of commercial banks of Bangladesh abroad.

References

Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare & Overseas Employment