New job markets

The newfound job market exists in the countries like Tonga, Madagascar, Namibia and Botswana. These countries are reported to have shown much interest in recruiting people from Bangladesh. Statistics should make the point clear: manpower export from the country went up by 27.24 per cent in the first four months of the current year compared to the corresponding period of the last year.

The development is significant for many reasons. First, Malaysia and South Korea, which have for years been absorbing a sizeable number of Bangladeshi workers, are not showing the same kind of enthusiasm about recruiting people from Bangladesh. Second, the Iraq war has had a negative impact on the job market in some Middle Eastern countries. So there was a real threat that the scope for overseas employment would shrink, which, in turn, would mean a fall in remittance earning. But the new job opportunities in the hitherto unexplored job markets will certainly help the country attain its objective in this sector.

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Now, the task on our hands is to make the best use of the available opportunities. Sometimes job-seekers walk into the trap laid by manpower racketeers and become cheated and pauperised in the process. So care must be taken against such eventualities.

The government has initiated a dialogue with the Saudi authorities on recruitment of nurses in that country. While cultivating the conventional sources of employment we must try to reach out to newer pastures.

Finding and taking full advantage of new job markets should be high on the government agenda since more employment of people abroad will give the economy the support that it needs to neutralise the ill effects of the worldwide recession.