Workers migration from Bangladesh to Malaysia declines

According to The Bangladesh Chronicle,, workers migration from Bangladesh to Malaysia fell dramatically in the past months following Malaysia’s suspension of issuing electronic visas for aspiring migrants amid huge allegations of irregularities.

Malaysia kept hiring Bangladeshi workers suspended between September 2018 and August 2022 due to huge irregularities in the migration process on both sides.

The Southeast Asian country was the second top destination for Bangladeshi migrants after the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2023. 

While 351,683 Bangladeshis migrated to Malaysia in 2023, only 20,467 people migrated in the past two months.

Only 1,278 people migrated in the first 12 days of March, according to Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training data.

Migration experts said that Malaysia had suspended issuing electronic visas as allegations of syndicated market manipulation resurfaced.

State minister for expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment, Shofiqur Rahman Choudhury, said that the government was working to solve the problems.

‘We are trying to identify problems and find solutions,’ he said, adding that the government targeted sending more workers, giving skilled workers a priority. In the Malaysian system, a calling visa is needed to secure a job and complete the process, while an electronic visa is needed to enter the country.

The calling visa or demand note is issued by companies, while the authorities issue electronic visa.

Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies former secretary general Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman said that over 40,000 people still have the calling visas but could not fly due to not getting electronic visas.

Experts said that the number of people having calling visas would be no less than 300,000.

Migration rights activists and sector insiders estimated that some 100,000 Bangladeshi workers could not manage any jobs in Malaysia, while many others were engaged in forced labour and remained underpaid or unpaid.

Andy Hall, a migrant rights activist and researcher in Malaysia, said that many foreign workers from different countries were facing the same exploitation in Malaysia, but it was acute in the case of Bangladeshi workers.

He explained that migrant workers became forced Workers and sometimes trafficking victims.

He said that workers were confined to locked shelters, their passports were confiscated, they were not given meals, and their movement was prohibited.

Andy said that many fake companies issue calling visas even though they do not need workers. When workers finally come, they send them to other companies for low-paid jobs.

Mofazzel Hossain from Meherpur said that he paid over Tk 400,000 as recruiting agency Musa International’s proprietor, Mohammad Musa Kalim, promised him to employ his son Taimur Zaman Nayan as a factory worker with a monthly pay of Tk 60,000.

‘When I talked to him last time, he wanted some money to buy food, but I did not know how to send the money,’ said Mofazzel, who filed a case against recruiter Musa and five others with the Gangni police station on February 27 seeking justice.

No one has been arrested so far in the case, according to the police.

Musa did not respond to phone calls or messages from New Age.

On February 26, Malaysia’s Home and Human Resource Ministry declared in a press statement that they had launched an investigation into the non-employment of 93 Bangladeshi workers in Cheras.

On March 8, Malaysian home minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told The Star newspaper that foreign workers must enter the country by May 31.

He also asked valid employers to issue calling visa directly instead of through a syndicated server.

Shakirul Islam, chairman of the Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program, said that the aspirant migrants would bear the brunt of the sudden closure of the market, while recruiters, who already took money from aspirant migrants, would benefit.

‘Government agencies of both countries must bring the culprits to book,’ he said, adding that the Malaysian and Bangladeshi governments must ensure jobs for workers who are already there.

Officials at the expatriates’ welfare ministry said that they had already listed some recruiting agencies involved in unethical migration to Malaysia and restricted their activities.

 

Formation of counter hegemonic order

As the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the Gaza invasion become increasingly protracted and complex, there has been a significant shift in the balance of power within the interpretive framework of international order. The differences in perspectives on the world order between the West, particularly the United States, and the Global South are widening.

After prolonged military conflicts, there will inevitably be catastrophic humanitarian tragedies, including food security crises and psychological panic. However, the United States, while arming Israel and supplying it with weapons, turns a blind eye to the plight of war-torn Palestinian people, while hypocritically condemning Israel for obstructing international aid to Gaza.

The two crises that have spilled over show the essence of the West's self-exceptionalism and the destructive nature of double standards in resolving the conflicts. The brutal dichotomy of the United States has greatly diminished the attractiveness of its formula for resolving the world's hotspot issues to the Global South.

The old world order constructed by the United States is collapsing. The image and reality of the United States as a global superpower largely depend on its ability to maintain its dominance in international trade and to set international rules, as well as the demonstration of this capacity. It includes the United States' maintenance of global trade security.

The Red Sea crisis has greatly challenged the United States' existing reputation. The US-led Operation Prosperity Guardians has a limited number of participants.

The maritime freedom advocated by the United States is a false maritime freedom. The United States continuously, selectively, and militarily defends its own and allied maritime freedom to maintain its military dominance and the freedom of US military forces to enter world maritime channels at will.

The United States once proclaimed itself as the “indispensable nation” of the world, with world peace under the rule of United States, maintaining the balance of power among nuclear superpowers.

The selective intervention of the United States in international conflicts and its biased behavior in wars has led to the Pax Americana becoming a thing of the past. Classical realism is returning and new mercantilism is rising.

The world no longer has faith in hegemony, and countries must bear more self-protection responsibility. The reluctance to actively participate in US-led joint military operations largely stems from the insecurity concern of the leadership regarding domestic stability.

The existing international order is suffering from dissatisfaction. The Global South is dissatisfied with the current international order because it feels it hasn't received the benefits it deserves. Western developed countries are also dissatisfied because their share of benefits has decreased. Additionally, Europe lacks sufficient sustained economic strength, coordinated diplomacy, and defense policy to continue exerting influence abroad.

National conservatism is forming a global trend. They abhor the ceding of sovereignty, suspect elite manipulation of the free market, despise immigrants and hate pluralism. The self-styled world police is unable to bear the heavy burden of intervening in all conflicts and crises worldwide.

The United States is declining more in its ability to lead the global order than its economic power.

The multilateralism pursued by the Biden administration is a mechanism for bilateral and multilateral coordination at the expense of the US ability to coordinate globally.

Paradoxically, looking back in history, the creation of the most important multilateral institutions after World War II all had the shadow of the United States. World politics is undergoing rapid change.

The existing global order continues to fragment, with countries becoming increasingly short-sighted, focusing solely on their own short-term economic gains or security interests. Without the establishment of a new order, both the developed countries and the Global South will lose out.

The Global South is rising and a New Order is being constructed

The Biden administration has ambitiously targeted so-called authoritarians, dictators and tyrants who challenge the Western order globally.

The United States is truly targeting those who challenge the democratic model of Western values.

The Biden administration has tried to portray rivalry between US with China as a confrontation of two values, a confrontation of democracy and authoritarianism. And the abysmal performance of the United States in stopping the Ukrainian and Gaza crises has made it increasingly difficult to solidly coalesce the external will of different nations on the basis of ideological favor, even for American allies and partners.

On the battlefield of public opinion and propaganda, where the American and Western media have long dominated, there is a growing aversion in the Global South to reports, commentaries and messages that exude the moral superiority of the Western world and imbued with Western values.

With Iran, Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia becoming full members of BRICS on January 01, 2024, BRICS is becoming an organization that represents the Global South. The BRICS expansion is a movement of emerging economies fighting for self-determination of the international discourse on the global stage.

Countries of the Global South are collectively shaping a new multi polar order for a new era, unwilling either to be beholden to the Superpower or to return to a world divided into spheres of influence.

The new world multilevel order should avoid falling into the stereotypical mindset of arguing over who should fill the “power vacuum”. The concept of a power vacuum is a continuation of the hegemonic world view, a blind faith in, and blind obedience to an unchallenged leadership.

Pursuing dominance while remaining vigilant against countries of similar power may lead the powerful to overly prioritize building coercive capabilities at the expense of capacity enhancement for the well-being of the people.

The world order is changing, and US hegemony is no longer welcome. As the global economic growth slows down to prevent conflicts and wars from spilling over, major countries are more willing to take joint efforts to bring more stability and certainty.

Rather than counting on the United States to autonomously fulfill its share of international responsibility, the Global South prefers solidarity and mutual assistance among themselves. Cold-war and polarized mentalities would only exacerbate instability and uncertainty in the world.

China’s Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative are Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions for accommodating harmonious coexistence and common progress of all countries.

The destiny of developing countries should be in their own hands, mutually respecting each other’s concerns, and promoting common development in a new multilevel world order upholding equity and justice.

Courtesy: Tehran Times

Aid reaches Gaza shore in first sea delivery

According to Saudi Gazette, the first maritime humanitarian aid shipment to Gaza has been unloaded on to the shore. The US charity behind the mission, World Central Kitchen, is carrying out the mission in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates.

Aid agencies have repeatedly warned that no method of relief is as effective as delivery by land, but they say Israeli restrictions mean a fraction of what is needed is getting in.

The shipment contained 200 tons of food desperately needed for Gaza, which the UN says is on the brink of famine. It marks the start of a trial to see if the sea route would be more effective than air and land deliveries.

Aid agencies have accused Israel of impeding aid deliveries, a charge vehemently denied by Israeli officials. They say Israel is allowing aid through two crossings in the south and has blamed aid agencies of logistical failures.

Saturday's shipment arrived on board Spanish charity ship Open Arms.

Its cargo includes beans, carrots, canned tuna, chickpeas, canned corn, parboiled rice, flour, oil, salt and pallets of dates, which hold spiritual significance during Ramadan.

In a statement, World Central Kitchen (WCK) said, "All cargo was offloaded and is being readied for distribution in Gaza." Teams worked through the night to get the aid on to dry land.

Gaza has no functioning port, so a jetty stemming from the shoreline was built by WCK's team.
However, there are few details on how the aid distribution will work, with UN relief agencies having described huge obstacles to getting relief supplies to those in need.

Earlier, WCK's founder, celebrity chef José Andrés, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that all the food aid from the barge had been loaded into 12 lorries.

"We did it!" he wrote, adding that this was a test to see if they could bring even more aid in the next shipment — up to "thousands of tons a week".

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said troops had been deployed to secure the shoreline.

This delivery has been highly anticipated since the ship set off from the port of Larnaca on Tuesday.

If this sea mission is deemed a success, other aid ships will likely follow as part of an international effort to get more aid into Gaza. The ships would use a newly opened sea route to travel directly to the region.

The US is planning to build its own floating dock off the coast to boost sea deliveries. The White House says it could see two million meals a day enter Gaza, but while a military ship is en route with equipment on board to build the dock, questions remain about the logistics of the plan.

The World Food Program had to temporarily pause its land deliveries after convoys came under gunfire and looting. And an air drop turned deadly last week when five people were reportedly killed when a parachute failed and they were hit by the aid package.

The UN has warned that famine is "almost inevitable" in Gaza without urgent action, and the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has accused Israel of creating a "manmade" disaster and using starvation as a weapon of war.

 

Israel approves plan to attack Rafah

Israel on Friday approved a potential assault on the Gaza city of Rafah while also keeping ceasefire hopes alive with plans to send another delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible hostage deal with Islamist militant group Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had ok'd a plan to attack the city on the southern edge of the shattered Palestinian enclave where more than half of its 2.3 million residents are sheltering after five months of war.

Global allies and critics have urged Netanyahu to hold off attacking Rafah, fearing mass civilian casualties. But Israel says it is one of the last strongholds of Hamas whom it has pledged to eliminate and that residents will be evacuated.

In Washington, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the US had not seen the Rafah plan, but would like to. He told a regular briefing a Hamas ceasefire-for-hostages proposal was within the bounds of what was possible and expressed cautious optimism about it.

Hamas has presented a Gaza ceasefire proposal to mediators and the US, which includes release of Israeli hostages in exchange for freedom for Palestinian prisoners, 100 of whom are serving life sentences.

A statement from Netanyahu's office on the Rafah attack plan said Hamas' demands for the release of hostages remained unrealistic, but an Israeli delegation would still head to Doha once the security cabinet had discussed its position.

The Israeli statement said the Israeli Defence Force was preparing operationally and for the evacuation of the population of Rafah.

It gave no time frame and there was no immediate evidence of extra preparations on the ground.

Negotiators failed this week to reach a ceasefire agreement in time for the Ramadan Muslim holy month. Washington and Arab mediators are still determined to reach a deal to head off an assault on Rafah and let in food to stave off starvation.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri accused Netanyahu of "manoeuvring ... to conduct more crimes of genocide."

"He isn't interested in reaching an agreement," he told Reuters.

Israel has rejected claims of genocide, saying it is purely focused on destroying all Hamas fighters.

There is increasing friction between Washington and Israel, which officials in President Joe Biden's administration say is waging war with too little care for civilians.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected US official and a leader of Biden's Democratic Party, called on Thursday for Israelis to replace Netanyahu, whose hardline policies he said were wrecking Israel's international standing.

In the centre of Gaza City late on Friday, an Israeli air strike destroyed a seven-floor residential building, killing or wounding several people, the spokesman of the civil emergency service there said. He said emergency workers were searching the rubble for casualties.

 

 

US announces sanctions against Israeli settlers

The United States has announced sanctions against three more Israeli settlers and, for the first time, two farming outposts, as part of new measures by Washington and London to stop the violent displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Fares Samamreh may not carry a gun, but he has a global superpower defending him. He's still losing the fight.

A Palestinian sheep farmer on the sun-tinged slopes of the South Hebron Hills in the occupied West Bank, his battle with his neighbor, an Israeli settler called Yinon Levy, has drawn both the US and the UK into the dispute.

"Yinon Levy came here three years ago and started bothering me," Fares said, his head wrapped in a piece of white cotton, his eyes narrowed in a permanent squint against the sun.

"Before the war [in Gaza] it was the usual thing; they would come with drones. But a few days after October 07, it became serious. They all had guns. They started coming to us day and night. I have little kids, some of them are four and five years old."

Fares said Yinon was one of a group of local Israeli settlers who would regularly come to harass his sheep with their dogs and weapons, and even, he says, to assault his family.

"They destroyed water tanks, closed down roads, they fire at the sheep," he said. "He told my wife if we didn't leave here, we'd all be killed."

He said when his wife then swore at him, Yinon Levy hit her with the butt of his gun.

Soon afterward, Fares and his family left their village of Zanuta. Activists say it's one of four communities around the settler's farm that have been abandoned by their residents.

Yinon has denied acting violently toward Palestinians in the area -- and said he didn't own a gun until very recently.

But he's the subject of sanctions from both the US and the UK.

The road to Yinon's farm is straight out of a children's picture-book; a narrow path that winds back and forth up a steep hill, slopes and valleys dropping away to the horizon on either side.

At the top, a spacious bungalow stands next to a large shed, full of bleating sheep smothering the strains of pop music from a radio.

"We're safeguarding these lands to ensure they remain under Jewish ownership," Yinon said. "When there is a Jewish presence, then there is no Arab presence. We keep a watchful eye on the land, ensuring that no unauthorized construction takes place."

Most countries deem the settlements, which are built on land captured by Israel in 1967 in the Middle East War, to be illegal under international law, although Israel disagrees. The settler outposts are also illegal under Israeli law.

The UK said that Yinon and another man had "used physical aggression, threatened families at gunpoint, and destroyed property as part of a targeted and calculated effort to displace Palestinian communities".

Yinon denied the allegations, and said that the Israeli government was on his side.

"I'm not worried," he told the BBC. "This is not against me personally - it's against those who obstruct the creation of a Palestinian state. There's no legal process against me [in Israel]. Here, everything is fine."

Both the UK and the US say there is a threshold of evidence that must be met - but neither have made that evidence public and declined to share it with the BBC.

We sent Yinon a video appearing to show him on Palestinian land, approaching activists with a snarling dog. He said it was misleading, and that he was defending his flock.

We sent him another video apparently showing him entering another Palestinian village with a gun last October. He declined to comment.

The sanctions came after a surge in violence in the West Bank, following the October 07 Hamas attacks and Israel's war in Gaza.

The UN says violence by Israeli settlers included physical attacks and death threats, and that the number of Palestinians displaced from their homes last year doubled to 1,539 - with more than 80% of them leaving after October 07.

The UK has said Israel is failing to act, and has described "an environment of near total impunity for settler extremists in the West Bank".

Yinon said that he had received support from Israeli politicians.

"Many called and encouraged us," he said. "Everyone said that when the bad people are against you, you must be doing something right."

One of the politicians who publicly backed Yinon in the wake of the sanctions was Zvi Sukkot of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party - a settler himself.

He said that settler violence was a "marginal phenomenon" and that those like Levy were the victims of conspiracies.

"When we have a functioning judicial system in Israel, we don't want our allies to say, 'we'll do the job for you'," he said.

"If there was evidence against Yinon Levy, he would be in Israeli prison. Who is Britain to come and say, 'we are smarter than Israeli intelligence'?"

The Israeli police commander responsible for investigating complaints in the West Bank told Sukkot's parliamentary committee this week that half the complaints filed about settler violence there were false, and that they originated from "radical left-wing organizations in Tel Aviv".

Against this backdrop, sanctions on a handful of individual settlers have not shifted Israeli policies in the West Bank, but they are having a financial impact.

Yinon's Israeli bank account was frozen last month.

Some of those currently under US and UK sanctions have used crowdfunding to finance projects for their area - including one for a synagogue and educational centre at another hilltop outpost called Moshe's Farm.

Its owner, Moshe Sharvit, was sanctioned along with Yinon Levy last month.

On Thursday the US expanded sanctions to cover several new targets, including the farm itself - putting this kind of funding at risk.

These sanctions may be more symbolic than substantial, but they signal American displeasure - both to Israel's leaders, and to the parts of President Biden's Democratic base who have been dismayed by images of the war in Gaza, in an election year.

The chairman of the local Yesha (settlers) Council, Shlomo Ne'eman, called it "a disgusting phenomenon" and said the West Bank was being used as a scapegoat.

"I think more than anything, what drives the response of the UK [and] the US is the fear of one settler attack that goes 'out of control'," said Yehuda Shaul, founder of the Ofek Centre, a think tank which campaigns to end Israel's occupation.

"The West Bank [then] erupts like a volcano. And we have another front, as if Gaza is not enough, and the road to regional war is almost unstoppable then."

Two sheep farmers in the occupied West Bank - one backed by a superpower, the other by the Israeli state. If the lifestyle here is simple, the politics are complicated.

From Yinon's hilltop farm, you can clearly see the ruins of Zanuta perched on the next hill, with the home Fares Samamreh left months ago.

Many of the houses are ravaged - roofs and furniture taken by their owners into exile; walls smashed by settlers to prevent them returning, activists say.

The deserted village is slowly being taken over by vast banks of wild mallow.

On a post near the entrance, a large Star of David has been scrawled in blue paint.

Settlers here point to attacks by Palestinians, and say they are scared. But it's Palestinians who are leaving.

Iran-Pakistan to sign Free Trade Agreement

Iranian Ambassador Dr Reza Amiri Moghadam has indicated that a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is likely to be finalized in the upcoming visit of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Pakistan.

Addressing the business community during his visit to the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), the Iranian envoy said the FTA would increase mutual trade and several bilateral economic and trade agreements would also be signed during the visit.

He also said that the two countries need to have strong air, maritime and sea links, which will strengthen the economic relations and Pakistan, will also be connected to regional and global trade.

The ambassador emphasized the closeness of maritime links, especially Karachi and Gwadar and Chabahar and Bandar Abbas ports and said that Gwadar and Chabahar should be declared as sister ports.

The current bilateral trade volume paltry US$2.5 billion. Pakistan and Iran can fulfill 70% of each other’s needs by engaging in mutual trade, just as Iran imports halal meat, Pakistan can do a lot of work in Iran in this sector.

“After the FTA and bilateral agreements for the promotion of mutual trade, there is a strong possibility that the mutual trade between Pakistan and Iran would reach US$5 billion in the next few years,” he added.

The envoy added that the Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline was a significant project, which would benefit both the domestic and industrial sectors of Pakistan.

“Iran is serious about resolving Pakistan’s energy problems and that is why Tehran completed the gas pipeline project for US$1 billion in 2009 so that Pakistan could meet its energy needs,” he said, adding that it was essential that the project is completed at the earliest.

He added that Iran was already trading in gas and the energy sector with Turkiye, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, therefore Pakistan can also follow the procedure adopted by these countries.

He acknowledged that the banking channel between Pakistan and Iran was a serious issue, but Iran has banking links with Turkiye, Bahrain and Iraq.

 

Bangladesh offers lucrative deals for offshore gas exploration

Bangladesh is ending a yearlong hiatus on oil and gas exploration in the Bay of Bengal as it scrambles to plug dwindling energy reserves that could run out in under a decade.

On Sunday, the South Asian nation opened bidding to dozens of international companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and China's Sinopec, on 24 offshore blocks spread across 15 deep and nine shallow waters.

The bidding process, which ends an eight-year pause on exploration tenders, will be open for six months as Bangladesh grapples with energy shortages and struggles to pay for imported fuel and gas from its fast-shrinking dollar reserves.

The country faced a spike in fuel prices in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, forcing it to turn to the International Monetary Fund last year for a US$4.7 billion bailout package.

Despite being seen as a promising source of natural gas, Bangladesh has long struggled with lagging exploration, with just 18 wells drilled in the past 12 years, according to state energy company PetroBangla. Just four new gas fields were discovered over that period.

Analysts said a key reason was international companies exiting Bangladesh over unfavorable terms in production-sharing contracts (PSCs), which set how the government and a company will share risks, costs and profits from tapping natural resources.

The American energy giant ConocoPhillips terminated a contract in 2015, citing unfavorable terms, Australia's Santos and Singapore's KrisEnergy exited exploration projects in 2020 after incurring losses.

However, PetroBangla said new contracts will carry more favorable conditions.

"We have amended our last PSC, and the new contract model has attractive terms for the international companies," Chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker told Nikkei Asia.

The new contracts will offer a revenue-sharing model, a 5% higher share of production and better pricing mechanisms, he added.

"I think it's a win-win situation for both the parties," Sarker said.

Revenue-sharing contracts could work out better for the country, which didn't benefit from previous profit-sharing agreements, said Badrul Imam, a professor at the University of Dhaka's geology department.

"[They] led to unfavorable outcomes for Bangladesh due to cost-recovery provisions," he said. "This new PSC has already generated interest among many reputed companies. We need to understand that unless we tap the potential of our offshore gas reserves, we will face a severe energy crisis within the next 10 years."

Bangladesh's economic boom has been powered by natural gas, the main source of electricity generation for decades. But dwindling reserves from older fields and a growing reliance on imported LNG are making the country increasingly vulnerable to external factors affecting energy supply.

Over the past two decades, Bangladesh consumed about 13 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas, but only about 2 trillion cubic feet of new gas reserves were discovered over that period. The country's existing gas reserves are likely to be exhausted by 2033 in the absence of new discoveries.

Bangladesh's oil and gas exploration efforts in the Bay of Bengal also pale in comparison to neighboring India and Myanmar, which have both made frequent gas discoveries in the waterway.

The government's hesitance to explore these potentially rich offshore reserves "hindered domestic production and favored private businesses involved in LNG imports," Imam said.

Development of the energy sector has long lagged that of the power sector, said Shafiqul Alam, the lead energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a US-based think tank.

Bangladesh "provided more attention on the power sector capacity expansion" but could not step up its "efforts on enhancing energy security," Alam said.

Despite resolving maritime boundary disputes with Myanmar and India over the past decade, Bangladesh has yet to ramp up offshore gas exploration ‑ even as Myanmar made promising discoveries bordering Bangladesh's territory in the Bay of Bengal.

Niaz Asadullah, a professor of economics at Monash University Malaysia, said geopolitical considerations likely influenced the timeline of developments in Bangladesh's energy sector.

"The incumbent government increasingly favored non-Western companies, particularly when it prepared for a third term in power," Asadullah said, adding that the number of contracts awarded to the Russian state-owned company Gazprom for drilling gas wells had doubled in the past few years.

Meanwhile, Dhaka opened the door for more domestic power generation, transmission and distribution, awarding contracts worth at least US$4.5 billion to private and state-run Indian companies.

In January, Bangladesh's ruling Awami League and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won a fourth consecutive term.

"With the national election concluded, the government now feels well-placed to navigate the politics of new lucrative energy sector contracts with interested regional and international economic powers," Asadullah said.