—Sarker Nazrul Islam—

The Foreign Affairs Adviser recently urged the Qatar government to recruit Bangladeshi professionals like doctors, engineers, IT professionals and nurses. In connection with this, he invited representatives from that country to visit Bangladesh to meet and recruit professionals. He made the call during his meeting with Qatar State Minister for Foreign Affairs on the sidelines of the Indian Ocean Conference in Muscat.

Without employment of skilled workers and professionals in overseas jobs, the much needed remittance now hovering at around some US$20 billion annually cannot be increased substantially. It means that Bangladesh must not only put emphasis on numerical expansion of the job market for less-skilled and semi-skilled workers but also on sending highly skilled technicians and professionals for earing more foreign exchange for the country. Till on Wednesday Bangladesh paid attention to horizontal and vertical expansion of the country’s job market sending more workers to more countries. At present around 13 million Bangladeshis are employed in as many as 165 countries. The number of both workers and destination countries still needs to be increased for obvious reasons. Beyond this, emphasis should also be given on sending highly skilled technicians and engineers, medical and IT professionals. This may be termed qualitative expansion of the job market. This is the secret behind India claiming a place among the world’s top ten remittance earning countries.

Bangladesh always felt the necessity and tried to send skilled workers and professionals but virtually with no tangible success. Till 2022, share of the less skilled or unskilled workers in overseas jobs was more than 71 per cent of the total; semi-skilled and skilled workers had less than four and 22 per cent of the share respectively. Professionals accounted for only 0.32 per cent in 2022. The share of the latter increased to 4.02 per cent only in 2023, according to a media report. However, a good indication in this respect is that while overseas employment of skilled workers and professional enjoyed a positive growth, share of the less skilled workers came down to 50 per cent of the total.

This poor performance of the country in sending skilled workers and professionals is reflected in the remittance it receives annually. While Bangladesh saw a remittance inflow of $21.5 billion in 2022, India reached a historic height of receiving $111 billion. Per worker remittance is also very poor for the country: while the average monthly remittance sent by a Bangladeshi worker is just $203, it is $564 for a Filipino worker, $396 for an Indian and $533 for a Chinese expatriate.

As Bangladesh tries for overseas employment of professionals, the ground reality is far from favourable. Other than only in Bhutan, the doctor-patient ratio in Bangladesh in 2019 was the lowest in South Asia; while it was 22 in Maldives, 9.75 in Pakistan, 9.5 in Sri Lanka and 7.77 in India per 10,000 population, it was as low as 5.26 in Bangladesh, according to the WHO. The situation in the country is unlikely to have improved much.

Pious wish means nothing unless concrete measures are taken to change the reality. Where are the adequate numbers of doctors, nurses, engineers and IT professionals that the country can afford to employ in foreign countries? There are hundreds of thousands of educated unemployed youth but most of them are graduates in liberal arts, having little prospect for overseas jobs. Given the existing educational facilities necessary for producing highly skilled professionals, it is not possible to change the scenario overnight. The existing state of affairs suggests where emphasis should be given. While it is urgent for the national economy to make a concerted effort for overseas employment of skilled workers and professionals, emphasis should be given on producing an adequate number of young graduates educated in science and technology.