Education and Primary Education Minister Ehsanul Haque Milon said technical and vocational education and training, or TVET, has no alternative for turning Bangladesh’s population into human resources and building a developed country. He made the remarks on Sunday at a national dialogue on TVET for a skilled and productive Bangladesh at Daffodil Plaza auditorium in Dhanmondi, Dhaka.

Milon said technical education plays a highly important role in the country’s socioeconomic development and urged people to move beyond the idea of relying only on conventional education. He said Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has adopted a plan to transform the country’s large population into human resources, and the government is giving technical education the highest priority to pursue that goal.

The minister said skilled technical workers are in high demand worldwide, while expatriate workers are a major source of foreign currency earnings. He said sending better-skilled workers abroad could further strengthen the economy. Milon also announced plans to establish four more engineering colleges in Bangladesh and said a separate project is being initiated to develop Dhaka Polytechnic Institute as a model institution.