DHAKA - SINGAPORE will recruit 45,000 Bangladeshi domestic
workers in a boost for the impoverished country's labour export
sector after jobs dried up in the Middle East and elsewhere in
Asia, an official said on Sunday.
Singaporean recruiting firms agreed on the number following
talks in Dhaka last week, director of the government's Bureau of
Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) Nurul Islam told AFP.
'They want some 45,000 maids in a year. We shall train the maids
and start sending them to Singapore by the end of this year,' Ms
Islam said. 'It's a very good news for us. It comes as our
traditional markets such as the Middle Eastern countries and
Malaysia have yet to ride out the impact of the global
recession.'
The global downturn affected jobs for Bangladeshi workers in the
construction and manufacturing sectors in the Persian Gulf.
According to the BMET, Bangladesh sent 202,000 workers abroad in
the first half of 2010 - the lowest in four years.
Malaysia, hit hard by the recession, has accepted no new
Bangladeshi workers for more than a year. Saudi Arabia, which
employs more than two million Bangladeshis, signed up only 2,200 in
the first quarter of 2010. For the same period in 2008, it employed
48,000. -- AFP
