Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Malaysia will examine a mechanism on resuming labour recruitment from Bangladesh in a Government-to-Government (G2G) level, officials said.
A delegation of the Malaysia government led by Human Resource Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam will arrive in Bangladesh shortly to study the mechanism crafted by Dhaka, said a foreign office official. 
“The delegation will study the mechanism which Bangladesh offered for G2G recruitment process to lessen the clouts of middlemen,” the official noted.
Malaysia, home to over 400,000 Bangladeshis, stopped hiring Bangladeshi workers in 2007 for an indefinite period, citing global economic recession as the reason, although malpractice in the labour recruitment process was also partly responsible for the freeze.
Earlier in June last, a delegation of the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs visited Bangladesh to have knowledge about the country’s overall manpower sector.
“The country needs around 0.5 million workers immediately and more one million in the next 5 years as the South East Asian economy is growing so fast,” another government official said.
Few months back, the Malaysian government also made an official announcement about the recruitment of one million foreign workers in the country in different categories.
There are some 400,000 Bangladeshis working in Malaysia, most of them employed in sectors such as manufacturing, construction, plantations, agriculture and the service industry.
 
BBN/SSR/AD-11Ag12-11:30 am (BST)