Malaysia to open up mining areas for Bangladeshi workers

Malaysia and Bangladesh agree on enhancing cooperation in various areas at the first foreign ministries bilateral consultations held in Dhaka.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia intends to open up mining areas for which Bangladesh will supply workers, according to a Bangladesh news portal.

Bdnews24 reported Malaysian foreign ministry secretary-general Ramlan Ibrahim as telling Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on Tuesday that Malaysia would continue to take in Bangladeshi workers.

Ramlan is in Bangladesh for the first bilateral consultations between the foreign ministries.

The report quoted Ramlan as saying Malaysia “would continue to recruit more workforce from Bangladesh and would open up new areas like mining for Bangladeshi workers”.

Ali was quoted as saying he wanted Malaysia to continue hiring more workers from Bangladesh.

Ali, calling Malaysia one of the country’s “trusted friends”, said both sides were happy about the recruitment process of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia under the “government to government plus” mechanism.

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had told Parliament last November that there were 237,991 documented Bangladeshi workers in the country.

Recently, Bangladesh’s Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam had said about 350,000 undocumented Bangladeshi workers would soon be legalised in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, The Daily Star reported that at the bilateral consultation meeting on Monday, Bangladesh proposed the gradual relocation of Malaysian labour intensive manufacturing industries to Bangladesh.

Ramlan led the Malaysian team to the meeting while Bangladesh foreign secretary Md Shahidul Haque led the Bangladesh delegation.

Dhaka urged Putrajaya to address the huge trade gap between the two countries and widen the duty-and quota-free access of Bangladeshi products to the Malaysian market.

Ramlan, the report said, called for negotiations for a free trade agreement, which would help reduce the trade imbalance. It said the trade balance was now tilted in Malaysia’s favour.

It was decided at the meeting that Malaysia and Bangladesh would collaborate to enhance deep sea fishing capacity, sea-bed exploration, capacity building and skills development in marine sciences.

They also agreed to provide genuine businessmen of the the two countries with multiple entry visas, added The Daily Star. -FMT