Dhaka: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) resumed recruiting workers from Bangladesh, with lifting the 7-year ban on importing manpower from this country, an official statement said on Sunday.

"Saudi Authority has confirmed that the Royal Court of Saudi Arabia has approved the opening of the manpower market of Saudi Arabia for Bangladeshi workers from today (1 February 2015)", a statement of the External Publicity Wing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.  

The statement also said that a high level delegation comprising of representatives from the concerned ministries of KSA is expected to visit Bangladesh shortly to discuss with concerned Bangladesh authorities to formulate modalities of the recruitment.  

Earlier on January 21 Saudi labour minister Adel Fakeih announced that the Kingdom would soon resume the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers. The labour minister announced the decision following a one-hour meeting at his office with visiting Bangladesh Minister for Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Engineer Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain.  

Following the meeting, Fakeih expressed optimism about the improvement and development of the relationship between the two ministries. Mosharraf Hossain told media that Fakeih expressed Saudi Arabia's readiness to open up the local labor market for Bangladeshi workers soon.  

Last year Saudi government lifted the ban allowing Bangladeshi workers changing their iqama (work permit) for switching professions after more than six years of the postponement of the opportunity since 2008.  

The oil-rich KSA used to take around 150,000 workers from Bangladesh each year until the ban was imposed in 2008 for hiring in housing and agriculture sectors.