70 lakh working abroad: 37.6b Taka remittances earned in 6 months

Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Engineer Kandaker Mosharraf Hossain has informed the Jatiya Sangsad that currently 70 lakh skilled and unskilled Bangladesh citizens are working in about 100 countries of the world.
Replying to a query of lawmaker AKM Maidul Islam during a question-answer session in the House yesterday, he said that some 4 lakh 27 thousand and 202 people were sent aboard during the just ended fiscal year 2009-10.
Khandaker Mosharraf said that Bangladeshi expatriates in different countries sent worth Tk 37,677.72 crore as remittance in last six months of the current calendar year.
Replying to a question from Noor-e Hasna Lily Chowdhury, the overseas employment minister said that some 2,257 Bangladeshi citizens were in jails in different countries and most of them cheated by different travel agencies.
Of the detainees, he said a total of 1,046 Bangladeshi citizens in different jails in Saudi Arabia, 189 in India, 180 people in Singapore and the rest in other countries of the world.
Khandaker Mosharraf said the government, through Expatriate Welfare Bank, would provide loan facilities to employees and workers, who earlier returned home from abroad losing their belongings.
Replying to a question of lawmaker ABM Ashraf Uddin Nijam, he said returnee expatriates would be ensured credit facilities in the easiest condition to make them self-reliant.
The overseas employment minister, in reply to a question of Md Shah Alam, Khandaker Mosarraf mentioned that the government had already taken different initiatives to overcome the barriers on waty to exporting manpower.
“A welfare official will be recruited at each Bangladesh missions abroad who will be able to cope with the social norms and languages of the respective countries.
In this context, he said ‘A wage earner welfare official’ has already been appointed in some Bangladesh missions abroad.
“With regard to the salary and wages, there is no discrimination between male and female in any institutions. Besides, the government has already taken time-befitting steps to implement a labour policy,” the minister said while replying a question from Momtaz Begum.
Meanwhile, Commerce Minister Muhammad Faruk Khan yesterday said that there are about US$7000 million trade gap in exporting goods.
“Last fiscal year till May, Bangladesh had about US$3293.84 million trade gap with China. Bangladesh earned US$667 million foreign exchange by exporting shrimps, leather and leather-goods,” the commerce minister said while participating in the question-answer session in the House yesterday.
“With a view to expanding and making a sustainable market of readymade garments (RMG), the present government has taken initiatives to set up garments industrial park at Munshiganj at a cost of around Tk 4 crore,” added the commerce minister.

Courtesy of The New Nation