Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen has said the concerned ministries and institutions should provide necessary skill training to the workforce intending to go abroad for giving a boost to the country’s remittance volume.
The minister mentioned that that Bangladesh has more than five million expatriate workers and they are sending about 16 billion US Dollars as remittance every year, reports BSS.
“This amount (remittance) could have been much more had we been able to build them as skilled manpower. But the opportunity is not gone yet,” the minister said.
“I firmly believe with the sincerity and efforts of the concerned ministries and institutions we would be able to equip our workforce with the necessary skills,” he added.
The minister came up with the expectation while speaking at a seminar titled “International Skills Conference 2019 – Skills for the 21st Century: Unlocking the Skills Potential of the Developing World”, at a city hotel in Dhaka on Saturday.
Noting that nearly 59 per cent of the country’s population is below the age of 25 years and one-third of the nation’s population is between 18-34 years of age, Momen said “to get demographic dividends, we would need to provide them quality education, skills training and gainful employment.”
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he said, Bangladesh has been able to achieve sustainable growth over the past decade and now moving ahead with various plans to achieve the target to graduate the country to a middle-income one by 2021 and a developed one by 2041.
This is no secret that many countries, over the years, have become prosperous by skilling their workforce, he said adding keeping in mind the technological advancements, the countries undertook new development strategies and put adequate resources to train and equip their workforce.
“Many others are also following the same as they know that retaining or speeding up economic growth is not possible without equipping the workforce with the skills required in the changing global job market and Bangladesh is no exception,” he said.
The foreign minister hoped that this kind of conference being joined by development partners, NGOs and business communities, as well as local and international experts will help the government formulate a skill development strategy for the country’s workforce.
