Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said on Saturday that low income expatriates remit home a larger part of their earnings compared to the educated groups who earn more.
"Our remittance rate is notably low, largely attributed to a significant portion of our expatriates being unskilled. Merely one and a half per cent of our expatriates in the Middle East are skilled. However, those with lower levels of education contribute more by way of remittance compared to their educated counterparts," he said while speaking at the inauguration of the National Expatriates Day celebrations as the chief guest at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital.
Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad presided over the celebration.
Mentioning that Bangladesh ranks seventh in remittance earning, Momen pointed out that despite having smaller populations, countries like the Philippines receive $38 billion in remittance and Mexico --$61 billion, much higher than Bangladesh.
India with $112 billion in remittance earning leads the table, he added.
Regarding the issue of workers struggle to secure jobs abroad, he pointed out that the foreign ministry is not involved in recruitment processes.
"Previously, the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) used to keep the foreign ministry informed. In recent times they stopped informing the foreign ministry," Momen said.
Alleging that many Bangladeshis living abroad spread false information about the country, Momen said, "The country has developed due to peace and stability. Expats often spread false information. I hope, in future, they will shed light on positive developments taking place in the country."
Imran Ahmad said that the role of the Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry is to facilitate peoples migration abroad, not to earn remittance. Its the responsibility of Bangladesh Bank or the Ministry of Finance to bring remittances, he said.
"We should not blame the Expatriates Welfare Ministry for the decrease in remittances. Our job is to send people abroad. The responsibility for bringing in remittances lies with the Ministry of Finance or Bangladesh Bank," he said, adding, "We are doing our work. I hope if they do their work, remittances will increase.
Expressing hope that the number of workers going abroad will increase this year and in the next year, the minister said, "Last year, 11 lakh people went abroad. Considering the current situation, we expect it will surpass 12 lakh. I believe in the next year a record number of our workers will get jobs abroad."
He said, "We need to focus on skilled workers. We are providing training. We need skilled people to train others. Some progress has been made in this regard, but there are a lot of areas to cover."
"We must pay extra attention to developing training centres. If theres no coordination between the training provided by recruiting agencies and the governments training centres, this problem will persist. All the countries will open their doors to our skilled workers," he said.
Imran pointed out, "There is no shortage of new job markets, and there is demand for Bangladeshi workers".
"Those working abroad have to go to our embassies; apart from embassies, there is no other place for them. Because of support from these embassies, our workers can work abroad. Some allegations do surface occasionally which will fade away in due course of time. We are working find solutions," he added.
