PM says her KL tour to help boost BD manpower export

• Published date: 05 December 2014
• Publication title: United News of Bangladesh

Dhaka, Dec 5 (UNB) Terming her just concluded Kula Lumpur tour very successful, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday said it will cast a positive impact on boosting manpower export from Bangladesh to Malaysia

"In overall consideration this tour (Malaysia) was very successful and effective. I firmly believe the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Malaysia would continue to enhance further in the coming days, trade-commerce and investment would get a boost, leaving a positive impact on increasing manpower export," she said.

The Prime Minister was addressing a press conference at her official residence Ganobhaban in the afternoon about the outcome of her recent Nepal tour attending the 18th Saarc Summit and bilateral tour of Malaysia.

Hasina also hoped that the four deals including one agreement, two MoUs and one protocol signed between Bangladesh and Malaysia during her tour would take the existing good relations of the two countries to a new height. Hasina toured Malaysia on Dec 2-4 at the invitation of her Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak.

She said then main objective of her Malaysia tour was to make more dynamic the existing friendly relations of the two countries as well as boost investment and trade and commerce.

About the outcome of the bilateral meeting between the two countries, the Prime Minister said Bangladesh and Malaysia agreed to boost bilateral trade and commerce, especially to reduce the trade gap, while Kula Lumpur assured Dhaka of starting negotiations on Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Malaysia also assured Bangladesh of extending support to it to become Asean's dialogue partner and hosting the next Joint Commission meeting between the two countries in 2015. The last Bangladesh-Malaysia Joint Commission meeting was held in Dhaka in 2005.

Hasina said the Malaysian Prime Minister in his opening remarks assured of taking this Bangladesh-Malaysia relationship in to a greater and newer height.

Under the protocol signed between the two countries on amending the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the employment of workers, the Prime Minister said against the demand of some 60,000 workers at Sarawak state of malaysia, initially some 12000 Bangladeshi workers would work there after proper training and selection process from the database.

About the Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia, Razak said there are some 2,99,000 legal Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia mainly in the services, plantation, and construction sectors and the...