http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2009/04/05/63113.html
Seoul set to extend manpower export agreement with Dhaka
A Z M Anas
Bangladesh is set to renew this week a manpower-export deal with South Korea as the East Asian industrial giant scours low-wage labours to keep its factories humming, officials said Saturday.
Dhaka signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Seoul in 2007, allowing it to send nearly 2000 Bangladeshi workers to the world’s 11th largest economy through official channel.
The two-year accord expires this June and officials said South Korea is interested to renew it, as its factories are struggling to stay afloat amid the worst global recession in decades.
“It offers us a ray of hope, especially at a time when the demand for Bangladeshi workers has slumped in traditional markets,” Amirul Islam, a general manger of BOESEL, said.
He said, Seoul has already sent a proposal to extend the man-power deal for another two years. “This is a proof that South Korea needs more workers for its factories, even though the country is hit by global recession.”
He noted that nearly 8000 workers would find jobs in South Korea by June.
The good tidings come as overseas jobs for Bangladeshis plunged by 38 per cent in the first quarter of the 2009, signaling a steep decline in remittance in the coming months.
More than 875,000 Bangladeshi found jobs abroad last year, mainly in the oil-rich Middle East nations and South East Asia, but officials said that figure might halve due to the global meltdown.
Officials said already manpower exports to South Korea hit bumps as the East-Asian nation recruited only 20 workers in March.
But officials are hopeful that recruitment is set to pick up in the coming months as the Korean government has backed the move to hire more manpower from Bangladesh.
Seoul opened its job market to Bangladeshi job-seekers in 1994, employing more than 1500 workers through private recruiters to work in its booming manufacturing sector.
Last year, Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Ltd (BOESEL), the official agency responsible for overseas job, sent around 1800 Bangladeshi workers to South Korea.
But that number came down to more than one-third in 1997 when the nearly trillion dollar economy was hit by the Asian financial crisis and was bailed out by US$40 billion IMF assistance.
So far, the country has signed memorandum of understandings (MoUs) with seven countries to speed up workers’ hiring by foreign companies and combat irregular migration.
Under the accord, South Korea is supposed to recruit 50,000 skilled manpower in different phases from 14 countries including Bangladesh to plug the labor force shortfall in its industrial sector.
The deal protects the rights of Bangladeshi workers in South Korea, where an estimated 19,000 Bangladeshis are employed legally and another 100,000 work without any permits.
Bangladesh’s 6.3 million-plus overseas workers and millions other who live abroad sent home US$9 billion in remittances last year, propping up the balance of payment and boosting foreign exchange reserves.
