BANGLADESH along with her 160 million population is enjoying opportunity of demographic dividend where most of the population is under 15-49 age group. A study by World Bank group based on accelerated fertility transition (AFT) reveals that Bangladesh will enjoy a more favorable demographic window of opportunity until 2051 (Sameh El-Saharty, Karar Zunaid Ahsan, and John F. May, Nov-2014). On the other hand, shortage of labor in Saudi Arabia is expected to prevail in the private sector at least for the next one decade or so. The construction, basic auxiliary engineering, manufacturing and in the domestic service sector need to hire foreign labor. A recent research report maintains that the prevailing skill mismatch in private sector, existing differentials in wages, work hours and skills between Saudis and non Saudis remain as key factors for private sector’s tendency to hire non Saudis (Jadwa research report - Arab News, March 9, 2016).

In this backdrop Bangladesh can be treated as credible source of cost effective workers in the coming years. Government of Bangladesh is making continuous efforts and adopted set of policies to capture this demographic dividend from migration by widening existing market in KSA and exploring new markets to extract benefits in terms of remittance and acquired skills in overseas.

In order to harness benefits from its demographic dividend, the government of Bangladesh is developing high quality and skilled human resources by imparting training as per requirement of employers from home and abroad.

Under the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) provides skills development training in 47 Technical Training Centers (TTCs) in 48 trades namely, plastic technology, auto mechanics, machine tools operation, auto electrician, mechanical drafting with CAD, auto CAD, armature and motor winding, welding and fabrication, civil construction, rod binder, tiles fixer, mason, carpenter, catering, hotel management, computer office application, graphics design and networking. Presently, under the Department of Technical Education (DTE), the TTCs train about 90,000 candidates a year.

Other than the existing 47 institutions, 26 new TTCs are going to start is operation this year for which 150,000 trained candidates in the above mentioned trades will be added each year. Moreover the ministry has taken project to develop 439 TTCs at the sub district level, which is expected to implement soon and will increase capacity to train 550,000 candidates each year. In addition to that the government is providing country specific target based training under skill development fund by which it has trained nearly 2,000 female domestic workers for Hong Kong and Jordan; 1,600 drivers and orientation training to 25,000 aspirant to KSA.

Outside this ministry a large number of engineering and technology universities, medical university and colleges, agriculture university and institutes and other universities and colleges and polytechnic and vocational training institutions in both public and private sectors are offering high standard undergraduate and graduate degrees in different fields of engineering, agriculture, computer textiles and medical sciences. Every year around 20,000 students get medical graduation degrees from 93 medical colleges, while around 1,500 dentist graduate from 32 dental colleges. Government and private nursing colleges are offering BSC and diplomas in nursing to around 7,000 persons every year. A number of public and private sector institutions, NGOs and industry have been providing technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

Oil price hike in the early 70s and massive construction and infrastructural development works created huge demand for expatriate workers in the GCC countries. Just after the independence in 1971, Bangladesh started sending workers to GCC countries as temporary and contract labor. Since inception the Middle Eastern countries remain as the principal destinations for workers from Bangladesh. The majority of Bangladeshi migrant workers are working in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Oman, Malaysia, and Singapore. In addition, workers are migrating to Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, the Republic of Korea, Brunei, Mauritius, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

Currently Bangladesh nationals working in KSA is around 2 million. It is also evident from data analysis that migration from Bangladesh to KSA show a steady increase during late 2015 to early 2018, and only in 2017 about half million Bangladesh workers came to the Kingdom with jobs. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is being treated as the most valued destination to present government which is evident from various bold steps until recently to further strengthen and formalized new vista of bilateral arrangements in the area of human resource cooperation and other areas of mutual interest.

Recently coinciding with the Joint Commission meeting between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, the Joint Technical Committee on labor issues (including domestic workers) was held in Riyadh in mid March 2018 where senior officials from the concerned Ministries (Ministry of Labor and Social Development of KSA and Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas of Bangladesh) were present. They discussed at length all critical issues related to manpower recruitment by Saudi Arabia from Bangladesh and agreed upon to work together to better management of entire manpower sector for mutual benefits of both parties, and particularly protecting the welfare and well being of Bangladesh workers.

Both sides agreed to work for streamlining the sector through introducing transparent mechanism, imparting adequate training for Saudi-bound Bangladesh workers and reducing migration cost. The Saudi side assured to take immediate measures for repatriation of dead bodies and compensation realization of workers. Both countries have expressed their desire to conclude a general agreement on manpower so that all issues could be addressed for effectiveness and efficiency of the whole recruitment process. The government of Bangladesh as well as people Bangladesh are always appreciative of the cooperative role of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in manpower recruitment process. It is expected that in coming days, both countries can further boost up this vital sector of manpower and human resource development. — SG