Bangladeshi expatriates should be careful enough to stop siphoning off money abroad and urged to reduce non-performing loans (NPL).
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam BSc made the remarks on Saturday at a seminar in Dhaka, reports UNB.
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) organised the seminar on ‘local managerial capacity building’ at the DCCI auditorium with DCCI President Abul Kasem Khan in the chair.
The minister emphasised producing skilled manpower saying about 10.1 million Bangladeshi expatriates are working abroad who send about $15 billion in remittance annually.
“If we can send our skilled workforce with proper training we can earn 10 times more remittance than we receive now,” he said.
The minister said some 789,000 people were sent abroad so far this year while there is a target to send one million people abroad.
The DCCI chief said lack of skill is slowing the inward foreign remittance trend and increasing the outward remittance transfer.
“The education system of our country needs to be restructured matching skills supply to the needs of industry and service sector,” he said.
He also said if any industry spends money for training of their professionals for developing managerial skill that money should be considered as tax free.
Additional Secretary, Technical & Madrasa Education Division, Ministry of Education Ashoke Kumar Biswas and Managing Director of SME Foundation Md. Shafiqul Islam spoke on the occasion as designated discussants.
They said the country’s industry needs skilled manpower and managers of technical skill, communication skill, negotiation skill and convincing skill.
They said $5 billion is spent yearly on hiring foreign skilled managers.
