Staff Reporter:
State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Mir Shahe Alam yesterday said Malaysia will hire about 200,000 workers from Bangladesh in the next six months.
The recruitment process will be implemented through various agencies in the country, he said.
The state minister said preparations are underway to invest about US$ two billion in electric vehi-cles, solar panels, renewable energy, and halal food sectors in Bangladesh.
All these processes will start soon, Shahe Alam told reporters after Malaysian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Mohd Shuhada Othman called on LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Dr Abdul Moy-een Khan at the Secretariat yesterday.
Mir Shahe Alam and Local Government Division Secretary Md Shahidul Hassan were present at the meeting.
The state minister said discussions on hiring workers from Bangladesh have progressed a long way. “They (Malaysia) will hire about 200,000 workers. Of them, they will hire 10,000 workers free of cost,” he said.
Shahe Alam said the manpower that will be exported from Bangladesh will start in phases from the end of September and the process will be completed within the next six months.
He said the issues of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s visit to Malaysia were discussed in the meeting.
Talks were held to further advance the friendly relations between the two countries, he said.
“There are about eight lakh registered Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia. There are some unregis-tered. Our minister has requested the Malaysia authorities to register them. About 10,000 stu-dents from Bangladesh study in Malaysia,” he said.
The state minister said about 1,000 students from Malaysia also study in various medical colleges, including Dhaka Medical College and Mymensingh Medical College, in Bangladesh.
Replying to a question regarding the movement of e-rickshaws or battery-powered rickshaws on the city streets, he said: “We will not allow e-rickshaws to ply on the main roads.”
“Arrangements will be made to allow them to ply on internal roads in eight zones. It will be divided into three parts,” he said.
Regarding a policy on the operation of e-rickshaws, Shahe Alam said the policy is at the final stage.
“The policy will now be sent to the Law Ministry for vetting. After the vetting, it will be announced as soon as possible. Once we announce the policy in line with the law, electric rickshaws will come under regulation,” he said.
The state minister said the meeting also discussed the technology of rubberized road carpeting used in Malaysia.
He said Malaysia has agreed to provide technical assistance to Bangladesh in the use of polymer-modified bitumen (rubberized bitumen).
“It is usually used for road carpeting. You know that there is a lot of rain in Malaysia, but their car-peted roads do not deteriorate easily. They use rubber along with the carpeting,” Shahe Alam said.
