Tourist Desk: Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has said that the government has specific plans to find alternative labor markets in the wake of the recent unrest in the Middle East, including Iran.In the question and answer session scheduled for the Prime Minister in Parliament today, in response to a star-marked question by MP from Narsingdi-5 constituency Md. Ashraf Uddin, he said that initiatives have been taken to sign bilateral agreements to expand alternative labor markets in new countries such as Serbia, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Portugal, Brazil, Russia, etc. in various European countries.Noting that high-level visits have been made to strengthen bilateral relations with various countries recruiting workers outside the Middle East, the Prime Minister said that Bangladesh embassies have been instructed to conduct labor market surveys and assess the occupational needs of Bangladeshi workers. In addition, country-based local lobbying firms are being appointed as per the recommendations of Bangladesh missions abroad. Noting that work is underway to open the labor market in Malaysia, he said that initiatives have been taken to sign an agreement regarding the recruitment of workers in Thailand to open the labor market in that country. The Prime Minister also said that due to the high demand for Bangladeshi workers in Japan, the scope of Japanese language and skill training has been expanded to increase the rate of sending workers to that country. Japanese language training is being provided in 53 TTCs. Moreover, the recruitment process for trainers in Russian, Arabic, German, and Italian languages along with Japanese has been initiated. So far, 41 trainers in different languages have been recruited. In response to another question from Faridpur-3 MP Nayab Yusuf Ahmed, he said that due to the war situation, professionals including doctors, bankers, engineers from other countries are leaving the Middle East. In this situation, embassies have been instructed to examine the possibility of employing Bangladeshi professionals there and send a report on the demand for workers in other sectors. He said that the existing unsecured loan limit for language student visas has been increased from 3 lakh to 1 million taka. The Prime Minister said that initiatives have been taken to re-send workers returning from abroad through retraining and skill development as per the needs of the international labor market. In addition, recognition and certification of previous education and work are being provided. Earlier, the parliament proceedings began at 11 am under the chairmanship of Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed. Parliament leaders participated in the scheduled question-and-answer session at the beginning of the day.