DHAKA, March 21: Labour and Employment and Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Engineer
Khandker Mosharraf Hossain today said incentive for overseas workers would help the country fetch additional $ 3-4 billion remittance a year.

     The minister, while talking to reporters at his office today, said the expatriate Bangladeshis sent home about US$ 12.17 billion as remittance to the country, which was 13 percent of the GDP (gross domestic product). This amount would go up to US$ 16 billion if they are given some incentives.

     The minister said his ministry would place a formal proposal to the finance ministry for introducing incentives for overseas workers to encourage them earn and send home more remittance.

     He said besides this initiative for incentives, his ministry also engaged in various efforts to increase the number of
overseas employments with exploring new destinations for Bangladeshi workers and improving their skills and experiences.

     He said the government was set to finalise a negotiation with Russia for sending there more Bangladeshi workers.

     Official data show the government in the past three years established 38 technical training centres for aspirant migrants where 65,569 workers were given necessary training in 2011, 59,000 in 2010 and 46,000 in 2009.

     A total of 15,69,407 Bangladeshi workers got employment in different countries in the past three years.