MoU amended to send more Bangladeshis to Malaysia, deal signed to ease visa

Bangladesh has signed four deals with Malaysia for exporting manpower and partially easing visa requirements besides cooperation in tourism and cultural exchanges.

The ministers for these sectors signed the official documents in presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak at his office in Putra Jaya on Wednesday.

These included an agreement ‘on partial abolition of visa requirements’ and a protocol amending the 2012 MoU on employment of workers from Bangladesh.

The amendment will allow the recruitment of at least 12,000 Bangladesh workers for Sarawak state, outside mainland Malaysia.

The number may be raised to 60,000 later, said Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque, also at Kuala Lumpur.

The country, a large manpower market for Bangladesh, has about 600,000 Bangladeshis employed at various sectors.

Two more MoUs for cooperation in the field of tourism as well as culture, arts and heritage were signed.

The pact on visa means government officials and diplomats of both countries can now get on-arrival visas at airports.

Malaysia wishes to take its ties with Bangladesh to ‘greater heights’, Haque quoted Prime Minister Razak as telling Hasina.