The Malaysian high commissioner in Dhaka, Norlin Othman, has said hartal was not a detrimental factor in making investment decisions.
“It is one of the factors, but the most important factor is infrastructure,” she said at a Meet the Press programme organised by the National Press Club in the city yesterday.
Hartal was something that everyone in the country lived with and it did not mean everything would stop, Othman said.
Earlier on Sunday, one of the organisers called her to inquire whether she would be present at the programme as it was a hartal day; to which the high commissioner replied that she would go to the press club.
“We have to make the best out of it,” said the high commissioner who has been stationed here for two years. Hartal is legal in Bangladesh and Bangladeshis would respond to it, she said.
Manpower export
The envoy said Malaysia accepted manpower from 16 countries and out of them it only had government-to-government contract with Bangladesh.
“We want to ensure that the workers get proper treatment,” she added.
Othman admitted that the process was slow as only about 5,000 workers could be sent to Malaysia under the arrangement.
“There is no quota from Bangladesh. It solely depends on demand and supply,” she added.
Second Home scheme
Replying to a question, the envoy said so far 2,923 Bangladeshis have availed Malaysia’s Second Home Scheme – an international residency scheme to allow foreigners to live in the country on a long-stay visa of up to 10 years.
“It is not expensive. One has to spend $100,000 to avail it,” she said.
Bangladesh is the third biggest country followed by China and Japan to avail the facility. Most of those who availed the facility were businesspeople and they did not remit money from Bangladesh, she claimed.
Many of them were global businessmen who had funds abroad and they transferred the money from those funds, Othman added.
Saying they have enjoyed a huge response from Bangladesh tourists, she said this year their tourist target was 100,000 and so far 91,000 Bangladeshis have already visited Malaysia.
Trade
The envoy also advised Bangladesh business community to diversify their export basket. “You mostly send food and textiles products. We are only 38 million [people] and how much food or clothes can we consume?” she said.
It was not the Malaysian envoy’s job to address the trade gap; rather the business community should come up with more products to export, she added.
Bangladesh imports about $1.5bn worth of products while exports over $100m worth of products to Malaysia each year.
