Ansar-VDP's Prantik Shakti Receives Recruiting Licence as Training Centre Opens at Safipur

Prantik Shakti Limited, an associate organisation of Bangladesh Ansar and the Village Defence Party (VDP), has formally received a foreign recruiting licence. Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury handed over the licence as chief guest at a ceremony at the Bangladesh Ansar and VDP Academy at Safipur in Gazipur on Wednesday (28 October).

The ceremony was chaired by the force's Director General, Major General Abdul Motalleb Sajjad Mahmud. The minister arrived at the academy at 10am and was received there.

After a short briefing in the conference room of the administrative building, the minister inaugurated the newly built Prantik Shakti Training Centre (PSTC).

After the inauguration, the minister visited the centre's 6G welding workshop, a modern driving simulator display, green energy (solar power) training and a mobile ICT training bus. He then inspected the cottage industry training centre, the Japanese language training centre and language lab, the hospitality and culinary training centre, and construction and other technical training sheds. At the end of the visit he planted a commemorative tree near the Darbar Hall on the academy grounds.

At the main ceremony in the academy auditorium at 12:30pm, the chief guest inaugurated 'Prantik Travels' and a smart 'Facial Attendance System' with a click on a digital platform. Joining virtually, the heads of three Japanese companies that are partners in a memorandum of understanding with Avi Welfare Trust expressed their views on the skills of the force's members and on the bilateral partnership.

In his welcome speech, Director General Major General Abdul Motalleb Sajjad Mahmud said overseas employment had been given the highest priority to improve the living standards of the force's six million members. Training capacity had been modernised under the government's 180-day programme, he said.

He said an agreement with a leading Japanese institution was at a final stage, and that trained Ansar-VDP manpower was ready to take advantage of the prospect of about 200,000 jobs created around the prime minister's visit to Japan.

The director general added that ensuring skills and compliance was essential to earning trust in the international labour market. To that end, BMET's 104 TTCs and the Ansar-VDP grassroots network could work together. The newly launched digital database would be linked with BMET to ensure transparency, and round-the-clock service and safety support would be provided to members working abroad through the force's own CRM platform, he said.

In his speech as chief guest, Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury said the Ansar-VDP training projects were set to become an important partner in implementing the prime minister's large plan to send skilled workers abroad. He expressed firm belief that receiving the recruiting licence would let Ansar-VDP make its activities more institutional, dynamic and effective.

The minister noted that initiatives would be taken to run the Ansar-VDP training projects in coordination with the TTCs. Through this training initiative it would be possible to prove that Bangladeshi workers abroad are skilled, and the legal processes must be strictly followed in this regard, he said.

Services related to Ansar Bank's overseas travel loans and shares were also mentioned at the ceremony. The force said the recruiting licence and training centre would work to create legal and safe overseas employment for members, build skilled manpower at the grassroots through technical, technological and language training, and prevent exploitation by broker syndicates. Easy-term 'Prabashi Loans', 'Prantik Travels' and digital platforms such as facial attendance would make the cost and process of going abroad easier, it said.

At the ceremony the chief guest was presented with a special honour crest by the force. The programme ended with a cultural performance and lunch. Also present were Gazipur-1 MP Md Mujibur Rahman, the secretary of the Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, Additional Director General Brigadier General Mamunur Rashid, and the academy's commandant and Additional Director General Md Saifullah Russel, along with invited guests.