Record remittance growth in Bangladesh
- CHICAGO, IL, March 24, 2006 - It appears that Bangladesh has been receiving extraordinary remittance growth in recent times which suggests that some of the policies which have been executed by the government are producing good results. According to a report published in a leading newspaper, remittance from overseas workers grew by some 24 per cent in the last eight months. Remittance hit a record of US$ 428 million in February, reportedly an all-time high in a single month.
The marked improvement in remittance flows in February is seen as partly the outcome of more energetic activities by the private commercial banks (PCBs). PCBs have been providing better rates and reliable services to their clients by taking the help of renowned global money transfer companies. The PCBs have been also getting a better customers" response as a consequence. But the success in the remittance field is not reserved for the PCBs alone. The nationalized commercial banks (NCBs) have also been discharging better services in this regard for the last four years in succession. Thus, remittance flows on the whole has only gone on increasing steadily and not declining. The NCBs have opened branches abroad and staffed them with trained manpower to mop up the resources of the overseas workers to send them through approved banking channels so that these do not get lost to the hundi operators or the ones who operate the underground remittance channels. The greater inflow of remittances has certainly helped the country"s economy to maintain its macro economic stability in a difficult period by keeping the foreign exchange reserve regularly replenished when demands on the reserve has been particularly heavy due to various growing import requirements.
However, the potential for still much greater remittance flows through the banking channels exists and the challenge is to tap this potential. The remittance flows through official channel was well over US$ 3 billion in the fiscal year 2005-6. But experts are of the view that actual resources sent to Bangladesh through hundi was at least two times more than what came through the official channel. If this amount came through banking channels, then the same could be like a vital contribution to the foreign currency reserve and in shoring up its macro economic stability on a sustainable basis.
The relevant ministries can indeed, realise substantially the importance of opening more branches of the NCBs and currency exchange houses in foreign locations that have heavy concentrations of our expatriate workers. The workers should be motivated by ample persuasion to send their remittances through these NCB branches and exchange houses. It would be not only necessary to appeal to the patriotism of our workers in this regard, the appeal will need to be backed by very good and prompt services rendered to them all the way from the points of dispatch of the currencies at foreign locations to receipt of the same by their intended recipients in Bangladesh. If these things can be ensured to a greater degree in the coming days, the flow of remittances through the banking channel is likely to record even more impressive growth in the near future.
24.03.2006 - 23:48 Source: 24-7pressrelease.com | Read: 1503 X
