CaPtAiN_pLaNeT
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- May 10, 2010
- Messages
- 7,685
- Reaction score
- 0
Do we have enough friends in the Middle East?
Do we have enough friends in the Middle East?
Mamun Rashid
A young electrician from a nearby electrical shop visited my house to fix my air conditioners the other day. Since he does mostly electrical works, he also brought in a person, expected to have better expertise to fix air conditioners. Both the guys would be in their early twenties. They were quite cute, energetic and inquisitive too. I asked them one question - 'what is your future plans'. Both of them had only one answer - 'we would like to go to amirat'. They meant the United Arab Emirates'. One guy is fully aware that Saudi (Saudi Arabia) is not taking any more Bangladeshis, hence Emirates is the most attractive and possible destination.
"Middle East" -- these are the two most favourite words to thousands of young people in Bangladesh. About twenty years back, a television drama showed a young man, who always kept saying -- "Taka Den, Dubai Jamu" (Give me money, I will go to Dubai). Like that young fellow, each year thousands of young men from rural/semiurban Bangladesh want to go to their dream destinations in the Middle East.
Young people from Bangladesh (now female also) go to the Middle East for economic well-being or improving their life style. Over the years, they send money back home to their families and our country reaps the benefits of those hard earned foreign currencies. It is expected that this fiscal alone, we are going to receive more than US$12 billion ($10.64 billion in 10 months up to April), out of which almost 65 per cent would come from the Middle East. Almost 4.2 million people are working in six Gulf countries, more mentioned as the Middle East-Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. Courtesy the rationalisation programme driven by Dubai emirate, the UAE is seeing the highest influx in recent days. Almost 1.2 million Bangladeshis are living in the UAE. There are always some people going to Saudi Arabia too, though the number is increasingly decreasing, Saudi Arabia already hosting almost 2.5 million Bangladeshis.
My question is, when those young men contribute to the country's foreign exchange earnings, creating so much of synergy in the 'rural Bangladesh', contributing to real wage increase in rural places and thereby increasing the purchasing power, facilitating access to education and healthcare, what do we do to make their life better? What have we done to uphold Bangladesh's name in the Middle East? Why is Bangladesh still little discussed, in the right corridors or tables in the Middle East?
Bangladesh, being predominantly a Muslim country, is meant to leverage its relationship with other Muslim countries. Despite what we have seen or get to see in the media, about how Bangladeshi workers are being harassed by the law enforcers in those countries, my UAE experience reveals that often the Indian or Pakistani criminals are portrayed or put up as the Bangladeshis.
According to an Indian Muslim taxi driver in Jeddah, the crime list suggests Yemenis, Pakistanis and Filipinos come before Bangladeshis, if not some other countries, too. Even then, the Bangladeshis face hurdles in getting "transfer visa" (in fact this is closed now), they are not being paid regularly or arrested by law enforcing agencies, all of a sudden. New visa issuances have almost stopped in all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, except the UAE.
Our foreign missions are supposed to be responsible for ensuring safety, security, well-being and respect of our workers. They should play an active role to ensure that our workers are paid at par in the foreign market and are aware of their rights. Until now, our country has depended on the success of the manpower recruiting agencies. However, the prevalent malpractices and fraudulent activities of many of such agencies do not guarantee safe migration.
Post 9/11, the movement of workers was affected all around the world. If foreign countries feel threatened, it will not bring any good for us. However to resolve such issues, we need to develop a trustworthy, stable, and long-term relationship with our partner countries, especially with their upper echelon in the Middle East.
There is also a need for efficient banking and investment services. The workers need secured and low cost fund-transfer services. In Bangladesh, a low share of remittance enters through official channels, largely due to the migrant workers' lack of knowledge on the formal sector and the time and cost involved in channeling money through the formal sector.
The Bangladesh Bank has taken several measures over the years like competitive exchange rates, fixing a time limit for remittance transfers or credit to the beneficiary's account, allowing expansion of exchange houses and correspondent banks, and encouraging banks to facilitate the growth of remittances inflow in order to see a significant rise, in value terms.
We still have a long way to go in terms of automation and building technological infrastructure. We should further augment alternate distribution channels by including the microfinance institutions (MFIs) into the remittance grid. Mobile commerce with the help of cell phone companies has been introduced; we want that to go to newer heights. Added to these, come efficient and effective guidance at the departure counter (having a bank account number or at least two weeks of formal training, can also be included as mandatory documents by the immigration department) at the airports.
We need to remember that Bangladesh has mostly been a low-skill manpower exporting country, while our neighboring countries (India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan) were able to send workers at mid-to high-skill levels. Hence, it is time that we raise our level of expertise if we want to make our presence felt in the Middle Eastern and enter the next trajectory of employment. We should immediately ringfence this under a public-private partnership with large non-government organisations (NGOs).
Now let us get into the issue of Bangladesh not being heard or discussed much in the Middle East. Two years back, a regional head of a large global bank told me, "Despite being a predominantly Muslim country, I wonder why Bangladesh is not even mapped in the Middle East or considered as a destination for investment from the Middle East." Similarly, a senior executive in a Saudi Bank explained why they bought a bank in Pakistan, and not in Bangladesh, or why their board feels that Pakistan will by all means come out of the mess. Our critics should also look at the Indian way of managing the Middle East relationship. Despite Hillary Clinton's besieging appeal, they didn't reduce or stop import of fuel from Iran. Rather, while she was in Delhi recently and discussing major Indo-American issues with the biggies, the Indian senior public servants were negotiating fuel imports from Iran on the other corner.
Being a Muslim country, while Pakistan was able to attract the large sovereign funds of the Middle East-based institutional investors, Bangladesh could not convey the message to those investors that it also has immense potential to be an Islamic financials' destination.
Hence, we should develop country specific strategies and policies to promote Bangladesh in the Middle East. Like what we have seen the USA doing, the government may appoint a special adviser, whose role will be to strengthen the relationship with 'those who matter' in the Middle East and capture the highest possible benefit from the GCC countries. The key to success is "Effective Relationship Management" and knowing the Middle East little better, I think it should be with the right people and who can call the shot only.
(The writer is a banker and economic analyst.
E-mail:mrashid1961 ***********)
Do we have enough friends in the Middle East?
Mamun Rashid
A young electrician from a nearby electrical shop visited my house to fix my air conditioners the other day. Since he does mostly electrical works, he also brought in a person, expected to have better expertise to fix air conditioners. Both the guys would be in their early twenties. They were quite cute, energetic and inquisitive too. I asked them one question - 'what is your future plans'. Both of them had only one answer - 'we would like to go to amirat'. They meant the United Arab Emirates'. One guy is fully aware that Saudi (Saudi Arabia) is not taking any more Bangladeshis, hence Emirates is the most attractive and possible destination.
"Middle East" -- these are the two most favourite words to thousands of young people in Bangladesh. About twenty years back, a television drama showed a young man, who always kept saying -- "Taka Den, Dubai Jamu" (Give me money, I will go to Dubai). Like that young fellow, each year thousands of young men from rural/semiurban Bangladesh want to go to their dream destinations in the Middle East.
Young people from Bangladesh (now female also) go to the Middle East for economic well-being or improving their life style. Over the years, they send money back home to their families and our country reaps the benefits of those hard earned foreign currencies. It is expected that this fiscal alone, we are going to receive more than US$12 billion ($10.64 billion in 10 months up to April), out of which almost 65 per cent would come from the Middle East. Almost 4.2 million people are working in six Gulf countries, more mentioned as the Middle East-Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. Courtesy the rationalisation programme driven by Dubai emirate, the UAE is seeing the highest influx in recent days. Almost 1.2 million Bangladeshis are living in the UAE. There are always some people going to Saudi Arabia too, though the number is increasingly decreasing, Saudi Arabia already hosting almost 2.5 million Bangladeshis.
My question is, when those young men contribute to the country's foreign exchange earnings, creating so much of synergy in the 'rural Bangladesh', contributing to real wage increase in rural places and thereby increasing the purchasing power, facilitating access to education and healthcare, what do we do to make their life better? What have we done to uphold Bangladesh's name in the Middle East? Why is Bangladesh still little discussed, in the right corridors or tables in the Middle East?
Bangladesh, being predominantly a Muslim country, is meant to leverage its relationship with other Muslim countries. Despite what we have seen or get to see in the media, about how Bangladeshi workers are being harassed by the law enforcers in those countries, my UAE experience reveals that often the Indian or Pakistani criminals are portrayed or put up as the Bangladeshis.
According to an Indian Muslim taxi driver in Jeddah, the crime list suggests Yemenis, Pakistanis and Filipinos come before Bangladeshis, if not some other countries, too. Even then, the Bangladeshis face hurdles in getting "transfer visa" (in fact this is closed now), they are not being paid regularly or arrested by law enforcing agencies, all of a sudden. New visa issuances have almost stopped in all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, except the UAE.
Our foreign missions are supposed to be responsible for ensuring safety, security, well-being and respect of our workers. They should play an active role to ensure that our workers are paid at par in the foreign market and are aware of their rights. Until now, our country has depended on the success of the manpower recruiting agencies. However, the prevalent malpractices and fraudulent activities of many of such agencies do not guarantee safe migration.
Post 9/11, the movement of workers was affected all around the world. If foreign countries feel threatened, it will not bring any good for us. However to resolve such issues, we need to develop a trustworthy, stable, and long-term relationship with our partner countries, especially with their upper echelon in the Middle East.
There is also a need for efficient banking and investment services. The workers need secured and low cost fund-transfer services. In Bangladesh, a low share of remittance enters through official channels, largely due to the migrant workers' lack of knowledge on the formal sector and the time and cost involved in channeling money through the formal sector.
The Bangladesh Bank has taken several measures over the years like competitive exchange rates, fixing a time limit for remittance transfers or credit to the beneficiary's account, allowing expansion of exchange houses and correspondent banks, and encouraging banks to facilitate the growth of remittances inflow in order to see a significant rise, in value terms.
We still have a long way to go in terms of automation and building technological infrastructure. We should further augment alternate distribution channels by including the microfinance institutions (MFIs) into the remittance grid. Mobile commerce with the help of cell phone companies has been introduced; we want that to go to newer heights. Added to these, come efficient and effective guidance at the departure counter (having a bank account number or at least two weeks of formal training, can also be included as mandatory documents by the immigration department) at the airports.
We need to remember that Bangladesh has mostly been a low-skill manpower exporting country, while our neighboring countries (India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan) were able to send workers at mid-to high-skill levels. Hence, it is time that we raise our level of expertise if we want to make our presence felt in the Middle Eastern and enter the next trajectory of employment. We should immediately ringfence this under a public-private partnership with large non-government organisations (NGOs).
Now let us get into the issue of Bangladesh not being heard or discussed much in the Middle East. Two years back, a regional head of a large global bank told me, "Despite being a predominantly Muslim country, I wonder why Bangladesh is not even mapped in the Middle East or considered as a destination for investment from the Middle East." Similarly, a senior executive in a Saudi Bank explained why they bought a bank in Pakistan, and not in Bangladesh, or why their board feels that Pakistan will by all means come out of the mess. Our critics should also look at the Indian way of managing the Middle East relationship. Despite Hillary Clinton's besieging appeal, they didn't reduce or stop import of fuel from Iran. Rather, while she was in Delhi recently and discussing major Indo-American issues with the biggies, the Indian senior public servants were negotiating fuel imports from Iran on the other corner.
Being a Muslim country, while Pakistan was able to attract the large sovereign funds of the Middle East-based institutional investors, Bangladesh could not convey the message to those investors that it also has immense potential to be an Islamic financials' destination.
Hence, we should develop country specific strategies and policies to promote Bangladesh in the Middle East. Like what we have seen the USA doing, the government may appoint a special adviser, whose role will be to strengthen the relationship with 'those who matter' in the Middle East and capture the highest possible benefit from the GCC countries. The key to success is "Effective Relationship Management" and knowing the Middle East little better, I think it should be with the right people and who can call the shot only.
(The writer is a banker and economic analyst.
E-mail:mrashid1961 ***********)
