Bangladesh export textiles worth $42 billion dollars each year and around $6 billion dollars are taken away each year by the foreign employees. Around 2,50,000 foreign employees are working in Bangladesh textile industry according to industry players.
According to the official statistics presented by the Home Minister of Bangladesh, more than 84,000 foreigners from 44 countries were employed in various jobs as of 2018. But these figures aren’t indicative of the total number of expatriates employed in Bangladesh as they don’t account for the significant number of foreigners who are employed without work permits.
He emphasized the importance of a complete database. A task force should be there to monitor the whole process. He also mentioned that some foreign employees are involved with unethical activities. They sometimes create a conflictual atmosphere in the industry. This atmosphere needs to be solved later by the local employees which is a barrier to creating a friendly environment.
Bangladesh textile engineering expert Prof. Dr. Engr. Ayub Nabi Khan mentioned that during the corona pandemic, local textile engineers took the challenges to face the global business threat. He also highlighted that all foreign employees are in the tax network. There should be proper monitoring and reporting. The local textile experts pleaded that foreign experts should be replaced with equally competent local workers.
I am not against the foreign employees, but we don’t want them in the dominating role,” saying this Prof. Dr. Engr. Ayub Nabi Khan mentioned that entrepreneurs should have a proper mindset to encourage the local textile engineers to take the challenges and take the companies forward.
Engr. Md. Abdus Sabur, Secretary of Science & Technology Affairs of Bangladesh Awami League and Ex-President said, “More than 400 Ph.D. holders are there in the Textile Industry. But we are going for foreign professionals. Yes, taxation should be proper and monitoring should be there.” He also said, “There is no alternative to R& D and training to overcome these problems.”
The Indian textile experts dominate the foreign workers operating in Bangladesh accounting for 41 percent of foreign textile engineers, followed by 16 percent from China, 4 percent from Sri Lanka, 4 percent from South Korea, percent from Japan and 27 percent from other countries.
