Bangladesh wants to have investment in the skills development sector from the Gulf countries in an effort to boost its remittance.
More than half of the over $15 billion annual remittances come from migrant workers in the six Middle-eastern countries — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.
“We have given proposals to the private sector in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates to set up training school here so that we can have training workforce,” said a foreign ministry official.
Between the seven and eight million Bangladeshis working abroad, only two percent are skilled, according to the official.
“If we can increase the number to 10 percent in the next five years, it will have significant impact on remittance,” he added.
He said a Saudi delegation, which includes investors, will be coming to Dhaka very soon and they want to set up training facility in the country.
The UAE also has similar approach as their private sector also wants to invest in skills development.
“The investment was discussed when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina went to the UAE last month,” he said.
About 2.5 million Bangladeshis are working in those Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Another official said, the demand for unskilled workers will not be withered overnight and it will continue, but Dhaka’s focus is on sending more skilled workforce.
He said, Bangladesh’s biggest manpower destination is Saudi Arabia and they have demand for skilled workforce.
Citing example, he said, “Recently they wanted doctors but not in the main cities like Mecca or Jeddah but for rural towns where they have built modern hospitals.”
The pay package is very good but many of doctors are not interested to go to those places due to education for their children, he added.