More jobs in Qatar assured

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni yesterday said Qatar would soon recruit more skilled and semi-skilled manpower from Bangladesh.
“We have discussed recruitment of human resources from Bangladesh. Qatar assured us of employing more semi-skilled and skilled manpower,” Dipu Moni told reporters after her meeting with visiting Qatar minister Khaled Bin Mohamed Al-Attiya at state guest house Meghna.
Al-Attiya, state minister for international cooperation and minister-in-charge of the business and trade ministry, is leading a 20-member delegation here.
The delegation arrived here on Tuesday as a follow up of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Qatar visit in October 2009.
“Qatar will help set up a nursing institute in Bangladesh to produce more skilled nurses for appointment there,” said Dipu Moni, adding that Qatar also pledged providing funds for dredging rivers in Bangladesh though it did not mention any figure.
Qatar’s Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al Thani during talks with Sheikh Hasina in Doha last year assured Bangladesh of providing dredgers to help massive capital dredging and maintenance project to restore navigability in the Bangladesh rivers.
Dipu said during her talks the Qatar minister gave assurance of assistance to establish community clinics in Bangladesh.
She said Doha would also assist in energy and tourism sectors and construction of multi-purpose cyclone shelters in Bangladesh.
Al-Attiya told reporters that the two countries would hold expert level talks to strengthen bilateral relations. “We have discussed so many issues where we can strengthen cooperation,” he said.
Regarding cooperation in energy sector, the Qatar minister said Bangladesh can hold talks with Qatar Petroleum in this regard.
The Qatar delegation will leave here today.
Some 155,000 Bangladeshis have so far gone to Qatar for employment. Of them, about 1,500 people went to Qatar this January and February, said sources at the expatriates welfare and overseas employment ministry.
Most of the Bangladeshis work in the readymade garment and construction sectors in Qatar, they said. Many countries stopped taking manpower from Bangladesh during the recent economic meltdown, but Qatar was steady in this regard, they added.

Courtesy of The Daily Star