The interim government is on the look out for new windows for manpower export as about 200,000 Bangladeshi workers got jobs abroad over the past four months, officials said on May 15. Officials of the overseas employment ministry said the figure is almost twice the number of people sent abroad in the same period of the previous year. Some 0.197 million (1.97 lakh) skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers were sent abroad in January-April this year. The figure was 96,411 over the same period in 2006, according to the officials.

They said they are trying to explore non-traditional markets for Bangladeshi manpower. Foreign adviser Iftekhar Chowdhury recently told the agency that the interim government was planning to initiate new projects to train unskilled workers for overseas jobs. “We are determined to expand manpower export. We have planned to set up institutions so that we can train workers for meeting demands of the overseas markets,” Iftekhar said.

The overseas ministry officials said the ministry is trying to explore non-traditional manpower markets in Korea, Canada and Australia. The government is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United Arab Emirates this month to boost manpower export to the Gulf state. Adviser Chowdhury said the UAE labour minister is due to visit Bangladesh on May 20-22.

A foreign ministry official said the adviser is likely to visit Korea next month when another MoU for manpower export could be signed with the Asian economic giant. Avenues for exporting manpower to Canada are also like to be explored soon. The overseas employment ministry has moved to set up a foreign-funded catering institute in the country to train workers for foreign markets. It would seek funds from the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK, a ministry officials said.