To accelerate the economic growth and migrate the country to the middle income status, engaging non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) in the development process of Bangladesh has become of paramount importance in recent years.
Keeping this in mind, Knowledge for Development Management (K4DM) project of the government’s Economic Relations Division (ERD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organised two workshops in India and Saudi Arabia in the later half of 2018 to respectively learn policy measures for NRBs in their development process and challenges NRBs face in engaging themselves in this process.
To harness the recommendations from these visits, a workshop was organised at the Planning Commission conference room on April 28, 2019 involving officials of ERD and relevant ministries. ERD Secretary Monowar Ahmed was the chief guest, while UNDP’s Resident Representative Sudipto Mukherjee was the special guest.
Monowar Ahmed said in his speech, “The recommendations received from the workshops held in India and Saudi Arabia with the NRBs should be taken into consideration, and we have requested to come up with policy solutions to implement them.”
Sudipto Mukherjee emphasised on coordinated efforts for NRB engagement involving relevant ministries and stakeholders along with the development partners in places with a high concentration of NRB communities.
In the workshop, reviewing the recommendations that came out from NRB workshops in India and Saudi Arabia, the participants engaged in a vibrant discussion and came up with several solutions to overcome existing challenges. They include creating a hassle-free process of obtaining National Identification Document (NID) services for NRBs, conducting a meeting with REHAB to prevent fraud in land and property sector, and more.
