When the second largest foreign currency earning sector of Bangladesh- manpower exporting- is near to close, Malaysia brings a light of hope in this sector.

The government of Malaysia on Thursday announced that their companies can hire foreign workers now. This announcement created hope for initiating Bangladeshi manpower export.

Both, Malaysia bound manpower and the recruiting agencies have expressed their optimism about boosting manpower export to the country and beyond.
"It is a hard reality that our manpower exporting business is nearly closed.  

We are planning to search for new manpower importing countries after the pandemic ends. In the meantime, opening the door for manpower import by Malaysia creates a new hope," Benjir Ahmed, MP, President of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), told The New Nation on Friday.

He said the country to start recruiting foreign workers from those who are staying in Malaysia and lost their jobs during the pandemic.

But this opening would create opportunity to export more manpower from the source countries including Bangladesh, he said.

The BAIRA President said the Bangladeshi manpower exporters will go to the country to explore opportunities as thousands of workers were in pipeline to go Malaysia with valid visa before onset of the pandemic.
Earlier, in the last month, during coronavirus pandemic, the country had limited the hiring of foreign workers to protect jobs for locals.

The Human Resources Ministry said the hiring of foreign labour would be limited to the construction, agriculture and plantation sectors to favour increase employment opportunities for locals affected by the pandemic.

Minister Saravanan Murugan said in a statement on Thursday that responding the local businessmen's repeated appeals to recruit foreign workers due to lack of domestic ones, the government relaxed the restrictions of hiring foreign manpower.

Sources said more than 5000 foreign workers had lost their jobs in July alone.

The minister said, "There were some employers who demanded that their companies still need a number of foreign workers. They urged the government to withdraw the restrictions of hiring new foreign manpower."

Though the government still will have to protect job opportunities for the local people, the foreign manpower also need there as the local workers are limited in the country.

Saravanan urged employers to give priorities to the local workers recruiting before considering re-employing foreign workers.

The foreign workers, if rehired, must work in the same sectors they were previously employed in, the minister said.

Malaysia hosts about 2.1 million documented foreign workers, according to government estimates.  
Several lakh Bangaldeshi workers still are working in the country in different sectors.