Malaysian gov’t to look at slow entry of Bangladesh workers

The Malaysian government is studying closely several reasons for the slow entry of Bangladeshi workers in the plantation sector under the government to government (G2G) arrangement signed between Malaysia and Bangladesh at the end of last year.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said among the reasons for the slow entry was the process of issuing the visa which was time consuming as well as the problem pertaining to flights from Bangladesh to Malaysia.

“There are allegations that private companies that are making big profits are hindering the G2G arrangement as they are not making profits under the entry process for Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia,” he said at a media conference, here today.

He said the government was studying the allegations and hoped that the G2G approach would be used by Bangladesh nationals wishing to work in Malaysia to ensure that the entry of workers was proper according to the regulations and did not involve high cost.

So far, he said, only 718 Bangladeshi nationals had been brought to Malaysia under the G2G method.

Meanwhile, during the meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina, Najib said Hasina had chosen the G2G method because she did not want the Bangladeshi nationals to be exploited by irresponsible groups.

“They (Bangladesh) have already created a data base for their people who are keen to work in Malaysia,” he said.

It is estimated that 500 thousand Bangladeshi workers who are eligible have been listed in the data base while the demand from Malaysian plantation companies under the arrangement stood at 10,000 workers.

Meanwhile, Najib said Malaysia was targeting to woo 90,000 tourists from Bangladesh this year.

He was optimistic the target could be achieved following the encouraging performance last year where 86,000 tourists from Bangladesh visited Malaysia compared to the original target of 70,000 tourists. Source: Bernama