The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The Government yesterday announced a 7-point strategy to ensure well-being of the Bangladeshi workers abroad and expand the manpower-export market worldwide through removing the prevailing bottlenecks.

Foreign and Overseas Employment Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury has announced the strategies, which include exploring new manpower-export markets in the Scandinavian, European and East European countries like Norway, Sweden and Romania. The strategies are-extension of existing markets in the Middle-East, including Libya, enhancing skills in the English language, exporting manpower from Monga-affected areas, ensuring proper utilisation of remittances, introducing strong monitoring to check fraud in manpower export and working together with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Organisation of Migration (IOM).

Announcing the strategies at a press briefing at the Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, the Adviser said the Government adopted the strategies, as it believes that the country's prime foreign earnings would come from the manpower-export sector.

Overseas Employment Secretary Abdul Matin Chowdhury, who was present at the briefing, noted that until September this year, a total of 8,830 Bangladeshi citizens are in prisons in different countries across the world, either in police custody or under remand. Of them, 1,930 have b Of the convicts, the highest number of 636 Bangladeshi nationals are in Saudi jail.