It is heartening to know that the country’s remittance inflow has made a new record standing at $6.71 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of the current fiscal which is 49 percent higher compared to that in the same period of the last fiscal.
Though millions of Bangladeshi migrant workers are going through hard times abroad due to COVID-19 pandemic, still they are providing oxygen for our economy by non-stop sending of remittances.
More than 90,000 expatriate Bangladeshi workers returned home from abroad in the last six months amid the coronavirus pandemic. In order to keep the progress of the country’s remittance inflow intact, pragmatic steps should be taken to send back our expatriate workers who have been compelled to return home due to the pandemic.
As a result of the government’s various endeavours, the tempo of the country’s remittance inflow has remarkably progressed over the last several years. Moreover, expat workers’ hard-earned money, sent through proper channels, immensely contributed to the boosting of economy.
In order to keep the progress of the country’s
remittance inflow unhindered,
pragmatic steps should be taken to send our expatriate
workers who have been compelled to return home
due to the pandemic to their work
destinations as soon as possible
Money sent home by our expat workers has long been the driving force for fostering the country’s economic growth. It needs no emphasising that if we can send more skilled workers to new and potential destinations, the remittance flow will increase manifold in the future.
But it is dissatisfying to note that larger portion of the remittance comes only from some ten countries; hence, more stress on finding new work destinations should be given in no time.
In this regard, we need to encourage more new countries to take our workers. And in order to do that, we must ensure that they are skilled and have basic knowledge about foreign languages as well as adaptation abilities. Also we must ensure proper training for overseas jobseekers before they are sent abroad.
There is a large demand for skilled workers like computer operators, graphics designers and medical equipment operators in European countries. Therefore, emphasis should be given on the need for grooming and employing skilled hands and diligent people for sending them abroad for jobs. Authorities concerned should therefore open more vocational training centres and invest more in the education sector. Also, there is a need to facilitate the banking system for migrant workers so that they can easily send home their hard-earned money
