Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday urged the Iraqi government to recruit more manpower from Bangladesh as the country has an excellent pool of semiskilled and skilled workers.
Hasina made the request when visiting Labour and Social Affairs Minister of Iraq Nassar al-Rubbaie met her at her office.
After the meeting, PM’s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad briefed reporters.
Informing the Prime Minister about the decision of his government to recruit 1000 manpower from Bangladesh, Nassar told the Prime Minister that a delegation of his country will visit Bangladesh soon to recruit 1,000 nurses.
Nassar also mentioned that he knew the name of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as one of the greatest leaders of the world since his school life.
Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Engineer Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain and Ambassador at-Large M Ziauddin were present at the meeting.
The prime minister told the Iraqi minister that many Bangladeshi workers have previous experience of working in Iraq and knowledge of its culture and values.
She said the peace-loving and hard-working Bangladeshi workers can bring mutual benefits for both sending and receiving countries.
In this connection, the premier mentioned that Bangladesh has already started manpower export to Malaysia under government-to-government arrangements in line with the MoU signed between the two countries.
She also requested Iraq to import more world-class items like readymade garments, pharmaceuticals, finished leather, leather products, jute and jute goods and ceramic from Bangladesh.
Hasina said Bangladesh remains committed to Iraq’s reconstruction and its aspiration for achieving economic stability and progress.
Hasina recalled with gratitude that Iraq was the first Arab country which recognised Bangladesh and extended friendship to the newly born nation.
She expressed Bangladesh’s firm commitment to further consolidate, develop and expand relationship with Iraq in all possible areas of cooperation.
