Ending all speculation, the formal announcement of opening the Malaysian labour market for Bangladeshi workers was made in Kuala Lumpur yesterday (Friday), according to sources in the Malaysian capital. Bangladesh’s state minister for foreign affairs, Shahriar Alam, made the announcement following a meeting with the Malaysian labour minister after attending the OIC’s special conference on the Rohingya issue in Kuala Lumpur. Talking to reporters, Alam said demand letters for about 6,000 workers have already been attested by the Bangladesh high commission in Kuala Lumpur and the process to send workers would begin by this week through the online system. Alam also said more than 50,000 demand letters will be attested in phases within this month.
He expects that a large number of workers will be heading for Malaysia this year, more than the total number of workers Bangladesh sent to other countries across the world in 2016. "We are going ahead with the process," he added.
Earlier, Alam moved around the new office of the Bangladesh high commission in Kuala Lumpur and spoke to workers who had come there.  The Bangladesh high commissioner, Md Shahidul Islam, deputy high commissioner Foysal Ahmed, Defence Wing Chief Humayun Kabir, labour councillor Sayedul Islam, minister (Politcal) Wahida Ahmed and SK Shahin, among others, were present on the occasion.
When contacted, Jabed Ahmed, additional secretary (admn) of the expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry, said he came to know about the formal announcement through a message.
The secretary general of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), Ruhun Amin Swapan, said he too had come to know about the announcement of formal opening of the Malaysian labour market for Bangladeshi workers.
He also said this time Bangladeshi workers would be sent under the Government-to-Government (G2G) Plus agreement in a transparent manner, keeping their interests protected. “Both the number and quality of workers sent to Malaysia will be higher than previous occasions and the market will sustainable,” he claimed.
He further said that the Malaysian labour market will be the largest for Bangladeshi workers. About 50 Malaysian companies have already sent 12,000 demand letters to the Bangladesh high commission in Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian government stopped hiring Bangladeshi workers in 2009 after experiencing the entry of a large number of illegal workers between 2007 and 2008.
In 2013, Malaysia had signed an agreement for receiving workers from Bangladesh under the G2G mechanism. But the initiative failed as the Bangladesh government could send only 8,000 workers. On February 18 last year, the two countries signed the G2G Plus deal, involving the recruiting agencies for selecting and sending workers to Malaysia in five sectors to avoid malpractices. Under the agreement, about 1.5 million workers are likely to be sent to Malaysia in five years to work in plantations, construction sites, service, agriculture and manufacturing sectors. Malaysia, home to nearly six million foreign workers, is already a key manpower market for Bangladeshi nationals — about 600,000 are estimated to be in the country, mostly working in the plantation sector.
 It is expected that the online process would reduce the cost of sending workers to Malaysia, as well as their sufferings.