Under the amended law, the Saudi authorities have decided to grant citizenship to more than a million expatriates staying there for more than 10 years.

According to a rough estimate, around 1.3 million Bangladeshis have been living in the oil-rich kingdom. They will get the opportunity of applying for the Saudi citizenship.

"It's a matured decision," Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan told the UNB, welcoming the move of the Saudi authorities. He, however, said it would solely depend on the Saudi government to set the criteria and grant citizenship as per their requirement.

Under the new law, passed by the council of ministers on Monday, more than one million expatriates would get the benefit. At present there are over 8.8 million expatriates in the kingdom, mostly Asians and Arabs. However, the new law would take at least four months to come into effect.

Now the question remains how many Bangladeshis would be eligible to apply for the citizenship as the Saudi government would give priority to those who hold degrees in medicine, computer science and other branches of science and technology. "The jobs required by the country will change in accordance with new developments," a Saudi official said.

Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Quamrul Islam said he is waiting to receive detailed information about the amended Saudi law from the Bangladesh mission in Riyadh.

In reply to a question, Islam said around 2,000 doctors and engineers are now employed in Saudi Arabia while a vast number is working in departments of water and sewerage, electricity, hotel etc. He, however, welcomed the new law.

When contacted, Bangladesh Consul General Ashraf Uddin told the news agency that it is not yet clear how many Bangladeshi expatriates would get the benefit under the new citizenship law. He said most of the Bangladeshis employed in the kingdom are labourers.