Malaysia’s labour market will be reopened for Bangladeshi workers within the next two days following further discussions, Malaysian Human Resources Minister M. Ramanan said Tuesday.

“Following discussions, the Malaysian labour market will be opened for Bangladeshi workers within the next two days,” Ramanan said after a meeting with Bangladesh’s Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury and Prime Minister’s Adviser Mahdi Amin at the Human Resources Ministry here.

The meeting, which began at 11:05am local time, focused on the resumption of recruitment of Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia.

Senior officials from Malaysia’s Human Resources Ministry and a three-member Bangladeshi delegation also attended the meeting.

Sources familiar with the meeting said an in-principle understanding had been reached on recruiting workers from Bangladesh through a specified number of licensed agencies, in line with conditions set by the Malaysian government.

However, details of the recruitment process, implementation framework and other technical matters are yet to be finalised.

The remaining issues will be settled at the next meeting of the Bangladesh-Malaysia Joint Working Committee (JWC), the sources said.

Following the JWC’s decision, the necessary steps will be taken to formally resume the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers, they added.

The sources said strict confidentiality was maintained throughout Tuesday’s meeting, and neither side issued a detailed official statement or joint communiqué afterwards.

Bangladesh and Malaysia have been holding discussions for some time on reopening Malaysia’s labour market to Bangladeshi workers after recruitment remained suspended for a prolonged period.

The latest development is expected to pave the way for the resumption of recruitment and make it easier for Bangladeshi workers to travel to Malaysia for employment.