RIYADH, 20 February 2003 — A Bangladesh investment and trade promotion seminar will be held in the Kingdom from April 5 to 9 with a view to providing investment options to Saudi businessmen.
The seminar is being organized in cooperation with the Riyadh, Eastern Province and Jeddah chambers of commerce and industry. It begins in Riyadh on April 5 and 6, moves to Dammam on April 7 and concludes in Jeddah on April 8 and 9.
Bangladesh Minister of Finance Saif-ur-Rahman will attend the seminar along with 20 leading businessmen and entrepreneurs.
The potential for investment and joint ventures is considered enormous in such areas as textiles, frozen foods, leather, electronics and agro-based industry.
At a press conference here on Tuesday, Bangladesh Ambassador Sharjil Hassan paid tribute to the Saudi Fund for Development which has disbursed $1 billion in grants to various Bangladeshi projects, including power distribution, rural electrification and telecommunication.
He also said that the Ministry of Health in Riyadh had recruited about 500 doctors from Bangladesh.
Some 140,000 Bangladeshi workers enter the Saudi job market annually. The ambassador said one of the problems faced by Bangladeshi workers was the high cost of recruitment. They pay the recruiting agent the equivalent of SR5,000 to SR6,000 in order to come to the Kingdom and this amount, often borrowed, must be repaid.
The unpleasant reality dawns on them when they have to sign a contract showing a salary far less than what they were promised in Bangladesh.