Roundup: Bangladesh eyes nearly 26 bln USD inward remittance in 2020

Remittance-reliant Bangladesh is scouting for new opportunities to further boost up the inflow of remittances, the country's second highest foreign currency generating source after exports, said a minister Wednesday.

Bangladeshi Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the country is eyeing the 25.39 billion U.S. dollars inward remittance from millions of Bangladeshis, living and working abroad, in 2020.

"We're aiming to increase remittance income from the current some 15 billion U.S. dollars to 25.39 billion U.S. dollars in 2020," he told a seminar on "Safeguarding Interests of Bangladesh Migrant Workers , Issue of Financial Inclusion and Social Protection."

"As part of our initiatives to make Bangladesh an inclusive middle income country we're putting more efforts on getting more remittances from some 11.2 million Bangladeshis who are now living and working abroad."

With India, China, the Philippines, Mexico and Nigeria, he said, Bangladesh has been ranked on the list of 10 countries which receive highest officially recorded remittance.

Bangladesh's Minister for Expatriates' Welfare said the government is going to strengthen the activities of its Probashi Kallyan Bank (Expatriates' Welfare Bank) by making it a schedule bank to pave the way for directly handling remittance from non-resident Bangladeshis.

"Remittances undoubtedly are an important livelihood strategy for Bangladesh households. We discussed that remittances have played a significant role in survival and recovery from the global financial crisis, which began in the later half of 2007."

CPD Executive Director Mustafizur Rahman presented the keynote at the seminar.

He said migrant workers need social protection at all the three involved stages: per-migration, host country and post-return.

There is a need for global, regional and domestic efforts if the attended challenges are to be met, he added.

Rahman said ASEAN countries have adopted a declaration on the protection and promotion of rights of migrants workers. ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labor (AFML) has been set up to monitor implementation of the Declaration, he said, adding SAARC countries should think about those lines since intra-SAARC migrant movement emerge as an issue of concern. Endit