Alongside the government, now the private manpower recruiters too will be able to send workers to Malaysia for different types of jobs and at a lower cost.
“The Malaysian job market is now open for all sectors,” Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam said yesterday after the seventh working committee meeting between officials of the two countries.
“An MoU [memorandum of understanding] will be signed between the two countries. The draft is ready. We will place it before the cabinet for approval while Malaysia will endorse it by the ministry concerned. We hope that the MoU will be signed in a month,” the minister said after the meeting with the visiting Malaysian officials at his office.
Currently, Malaysia only takes workers for the plantation sector under the G2G (government to government) process, initiated in 2012. The country did not take workers from Bangladesh between 2009 and 2012.
According to the delegation, Malaysia will now import workers for agriculture, factories, construction and other service sectors, the minister said.
Under the new scheme, the two countries also agreed on reducing the cost of sending workers at Tk42,000-45000 from Tk60,000.
After a daylong discussion, the five-member visiting team agreed to take manpower through the private recruiting agencies that operate under the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira).
After the meeting, Secretary General of Malaysian Ministry of Human Resources Saripuddin Bin Hj Kasim said: “In September we agreed to hire manpower following the G2G Plus process [both government and private] instead of the G2G process. Now we are drafting the MoU for G2G Plus.”
The private agencies will send workers under the control of the government.
Minister Nurul Islam said: “Everyone who has the capacity, is eligible, capable, smart enough and has a good track record will be able to send workers under the full control of the government.”
Secretary Khandaker Md Iftekhar Haider said that they would not allow any middlemen in this process. “Malaysia will take manpower from the database of 14 lakh job seekers,” he said, adding that the salary of the workers had not been fixed yet.
Yesterday, Minister Nurul said: “No management company will be included in this process to hire labourers from Bangladesh.”
Baira President Abul Basher yesterday said: “I have already been informed through the media that the recruiting agencies will be able to send workers to Malaysia. We are really very grateful to our minister and the secretary for serving the country’s interest.”
