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DHAKA: Bangladesh is preparing to send more skilled workers to ����ֱ��, authorities said on Tuesday, following the signing of a new recruitment agreement in Riyadh.

Around 3 million Bangladeshi nationals live and work in ����ֱ��. They are the largest expat group in the Kingdom and the biggest community outside their country.

Bangladeshi citizens have been working in ����ֱ�� since the 1970s but until now their employment was regulated by memoranda on specific labor deployment.

The new pact, signed on Monday by the Kingdom’s Human Resources and Social Development Minister Ahmad bin Sulaiman Al-Rajhi and Bangladesh’s Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Adviser Asif Nazrul, is the first such agreement for general worker recruitment.

“With this agreement, it is expected that the recruitment of skilled workers from Bangladesh to ����ֱ�� across various professions will increase, and the rights and interests of both workers and employers will be better protected,” the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment said in a statement.

In the wake of numerous infrastructure projects underway in the Kingdom, the current demand is 30,000 certified workers per month, joint secretary of the ministry’s training wing, Mokhlesur Rahman Akand, told Arab News.

“We are taking all measures to meet the demand of the Saudi certification authorities, since sending more skilled workforces ensures better opportunities.”

Candidates are tested by the Saudi agency Takamol, which certifies workers according to standards and requirements of the Skill Verification Program. It is an initiative launched in 2021 under Vision 2030 to advance the professional competence of employees in the Kingdom’s labor market.

“They oversee everything online,” Akand said. “We provide the training in our Technical Training Centers, where computer-based tests are conducted. We have 104 TTCs across the country.”

Currently, many Bangladeshis are employed in the construction sector. And more are likely to find jobs in the industry in the next few years as the Kingdom prepares to host the AFC Asian Cup in 2027, the World Expo in 2030, and the World Cup in 2034.

“We are now working in line with Saudi demand,” Akand said.

“We hope that by early next year we will be able to meet the target set by the Takamol.”

KYIV: Ukraine wants to increase natural gas imports by 30 percent following Russian airstrikes on its gas infrastructure, damage from which Ukrainian Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk described on Tuesday as significant.
Russia has sharply intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector in recent weeks, and last Friday attacked Ukraine’s main gas fields, raising fears of a possible gas shortage and the need for significant additional imports.
“We plan to increase imports by around 30 percent if we manage to expand our import capacity,” Hrynchuk told a press briefing after a meeting with Western ambassadors.
“We plan to import throughout the coldest months, although the priority now is to secure imports for October-December and, if necessary, for other months.”

IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE SPEED OF RECOVERY
The minister said the total volume of imports would depend on how quickly Ukraine can recover its gas production, how intense and targeted the Russian attacks will be, and how severe the damage to the gas transport system could potentially be.
“The faster we can restore (production), the less we will need to import,” Hrynchuk said, adding that an increase in LNG imports was one of the possible options to cover shortages.
The government had previously said Ukraine planned to import 4.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in the 2025/26 season, starting the heating season with around 13.2 bcm of gas in its storage facilities.
Analysts and former officials say the country had already accumulated about 13 bcm in reserves.
Hrynchuk said the attacks targeted regional gas infrastructure, as well as power transmission facilities in Ukraine’s frontline regions and severe restrictions on energy supplies were already in place in several northern regions.
Russia has been regularly bombing Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since its 2022 invasion.
The minister said that her team had already worked out scenarios for action in the event of Russian attacks and prepared restrictions on gas supplies to the population and industry, which had not been done in all the years of the war.
“We are preparing for various scenarios, including the worst-case ones,” Hrynchuk said.