KSA keen to recruit 5 lakh workers from Bangladesh

Saudi Arabia has expressed its interest to recruit some five lakh more manpower from Bangladesh.

‘We want to recruit 5,00,000 more manpower from Bangladesh,’ said Saudi Minister for Labour Dr Mofarrej Al-Hoqubani when he paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Royal Conference Palace here on Sunday night.

PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters after the meeting.

The Bangladesh Premier is now in Saudi Arabia on a five-day official at the invitation of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

The Saudi Minister said that the Bangladeshi workers are working here with good reputation while there are also some 42,000 female domestic helps working in the kingdom.

Both the Prime Minister and the Saudi Labour Minister agreed to stamp out the influence of the middlemen in recruiting manpower in a bid to cut recruitment cost.

‘Apart from recruiting workers, our goal is to open recruitment of doctors, teachers and engineers from Bangladesh,’ he said.

About the sending of female house-helps from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Hasina said her government has organized short-term training course for them and this training period would be made longer, reports BSS.

She also mentioned that the government has introduced online registration of workers to make the recruitment process easier.

The Prime Minister also requested the Saudi Labour Minister to be strict in manpower recruitment, saying, ‘Please, don`t allow the middlemen to exploit.’

In response, Dr Mofarrej said, ‘It’s our responsibility to protect the workers.’

Meanwhile, Royal Court Adviser Yasir Al Rumayyan called on the Prime Minister at the same venue.

During the meeting, the Prime Minister hoped that more investment would come from the KSA in different sectors saying that Saudi Arabia can invest in Bangladesh’s coal-based power generation projects alongside improving the circular road, rail and waterways around Dhaka city.

She also suggested the Adviser make more effective the Bangladesh-Saudi Arabia Joint Economic Commission for the mutual benefits of the two countries.

Appreciating Saudi King Salman’s pragmatic steps to counter terrorism, Sheikh Hasina said that Islam is a religion of peace. ‘If there is any problem between the Muslim countries, then that can be resolved through dialogue.’

Referring to the Vision 2030 of Saudi Arabia, the Prime Minister said that her government had also earlier set the Vision 2021 and has been working tirelessly to materialize that vision.

In response, the Saudi Royal Court Adviser said that although KSA used to make its 95 percent investment within the country, now it is working on a new strategy to make investment internationally.

Earlier, Saudi Assistant Minister for Defence Md Abdullah Alayser called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Royal Conference Palace.

During the meeting, the Saudi assistant minister put emphasis on strengthening cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh in the defence sector.

In this connection, the Prime Minister said her government has been working to build strong armed forces and reiterated her government’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards terrorism. She said Bangladesh Army has a special construction battalion and offered its assistance to the Saudi armed forces in their different construction projects.

Besides, she said, Bangladesh Army has a new engineering unit.

Chief of Saudi Intelligence Khalid bin Ali Humaidan also met the Prime Minister.

He said Bangladesh is a very important Muslim nation and his country wants to further strengthen its relations with Dhaka.

Sheikh Hasina put importance on sharing of information by the intelligence agencies of the two countries about terrorists.

While talking about terrorism issue, the Saudi intelligence chief said the terrorism has polluted religion. ‘We want to regain the honour of the Muslim Ummah by curbing terrorism,’ he said.

In this connection, Sheikh Hasina said for the acts of some people, religion earned bad name. ‘We must remove it and convince the people about true spirit of Islam...different people have different views, but we should have faith in Allah,’ she said.