Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) asked country’s all industrial and business entities which are registered with the organization to notify the authority about the number of foreign employees working in the establishment to enjoy specific services from the BIDA.
The BIDA in a recent circular said that the business establishment would also inform it about the measure they had taken in the case of foreign employees working without permission to work.
The services for foreign employees are included as a recommendation for visa, work permit, extension of work permit, and cancelation of work permit, approval for branch or liaison office and repatriation.
While issuing a work permit, BIDA usually follows the following guidelines:
Only nationals of countries recognized by Bangladesh are considered for employment.
Employment of expatriate personnel is considered only in industrial/commercial establishments which are sanctioned/registered by the appropriate authority.
Employment of foreign nationals is normally considered for the job for which local experts/technicians are not available.
Persons below 18 years of age are not eligible for employment.
A decision of the board of directors of the concerned company for new employment/employment extension is to be furnished in each case.
The number of foreign employees should not exceed 5% in the industrial sector and 20% in the commercial sector of the total employees, including top management personnel.
Initially, employment of any foreign national is considered for a term of one year, which may be extended on the basis of merit of the case.
Security clearance will be required from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Each industrial units, business entities and branches of foreign companies will have to submit a statement with the required report that there is no foreign employee in the entity without a work permit.
In February last year, there was a total of 85,486 foreign nationals were informed to the national parliament working in different sectors in the country.
Some people of private sector admitted that a good number of foreign professionals are working in Bangladesh are engaged in apparel, textile, buying house, telecommunication, information technology, poultry and poultry feed sectors and terribly most of them were working without permission.
Even, the government agencies have no statistics on the number of foreign nationals working in Bangladesh.
On December 12, 2017, Ex-Finance Minister, AMA Muhith, said the government wanted to raise mid-level managerial experts for the textile and leather industries to check the outflow of fund by foreign employees.
The Centre of Excellence for Bangladesh Apparel Industry conducted research titled ‘Employment and Expatriates and its Alternatives in the RMG sector of Bangladesh’ to find reasons for hiring foreigners and their areas of work in apparel sector under the collaboration with the Faculty of Business Studies of the University of Dhaka.
The outcome of the study conducted according to the study proposition, 5 lakh foreigners are working in Bangladesh and about 1 lakh of them are registered with Bangladeshi Investment Development Authority, Bangladesh Export Processing zones Authority and NGO Affairs Bureau.
