DHAKA, 28 December 2004 — Oman has agreed to lift its eight-year-old ban on hiring skilled manpower from Bangladesh.
The decision was taken at a meeting in Oman between Mohammad Quamrul Islam, Bangladesh’s state minister for expatriate welfare and overseas employment, and Juma ibn Ali ibn Juma, Oman’s minister for manpower, officials of the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment said in Dhaka yesterday. Quamrul Islam is currently on a four-day official visit to Muscat. He is accompanied by Mosharraf Hossain MP, president of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira).
“Muscat has agreed to hire professionals in every sector. Earlier, the country had only hired workers from Bangladesh for agricultural jobs,” Quamrul Islam said while talking to newsmen in Dhaka by telephone.
Muscat had imposed a ban on skilled manpower from Bangladesh in 1996 following an altercation between the then Bangladesh ambassador to Oman and a senior police official, according to sources at the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment.
