Remittances fall by 10.69pc in August
September 12, 2008
The flow of inward remittances fell by 10.69 per cent in August over the previous month, as fallout of labour unrest in two Middle eastern countries compelled a good number of Bangladeshi workers to return home.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $732.98 million in August this year while in July the remittances were worth $820.71 million, according to the central bank statistics, released Wednesday.
Meanwhile, overseas jobs for Bangladeshis fell by 38 per cent in August compared to the previous month due to a decline in demand in the Middle Eastern countries and Malaysia, officials said.
“We expect that the flow of inward remittances would increase in this month ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr festival,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
Some private commercial banks (PCBs) are likely to face problem in making import payment bills following a fall in the country’s overall inflow of remittances.
“We may face difficulties to manage fund internally in the near future due to fall in the inward remittances. The government should take immediate steps to resolve the problems with the Middle East countries,” a senior treasury official of a PCB told the FE.
He also said the PCB received $14 million as remittances in August against $20 million in July 2008.
Saudi Arabia topped the list of major sources of remittances with a total of $2.324 billion sent from the country in the fiscal 2007-2008 while a total of $863.73 million was remitted from Kuwait, the BB’s data showed.
A total of $4.975 billion was remitted from eight Middle East countries in fiscal 2007-08 while $2.939 billion came from other countries of the world, according to the statistics.
However, remittances by the Bangladeshi expatriates stood at $1.553 billion in the first two months of the current fiscal, marking a 49.67 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the last fiscal, they added.
Bangladesh received $1.553 billion during the July-August period of the current fiscal against $1.038 billion million in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, the BB’s data showed.
The country’s foreign exchange reserve stood at $5.30 billion Wednesday after making a routine payment to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) Tuesday.
Bangladesh made a routine payment of $582 million to the ACU against imports for July-August period of the current year on the day.
The payment pushed down the foreign exchange reserve to $5.32 billion Tuesday from $5.96 billion on the previous day, the BB officials confirmed.
A total of 54,708 Bangladeshis secured jobs abroad in August, the lowest monthly figure since January, which is also 27.86 per cent down from the same period last year, according to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) statistics.
More than 5.6 million Bangladeshis are now working in over 100 countries across the globe. In the 2007-8 fiscal they sent home $7.939 billion in remittances, up by nearly two billion dollars than the previous fiscal.
Manpower export to Bahrain stops
August 27, 2008
Employment of Bangladeshi workers in Bahrain comes to a halt, as the country on Monday stopped issuing work permits to Bangladeshis, Bahraini newspaper Gulf Daily News reported yesterday.
The Bangladesh embassy in Bahrain says the move is “shocking” and “unacceptable” and they will pursue the Gulf nation to review the decision. Bahraini human rights activists also term it “xenophobic”.
Recruitment businesses observe the ban is a great shock for Bangladesh’s overseas labour market that came after a halt of recruitment in Kuwait in late 2006, reduction in employment in Saudi Arabia and a temporary ban in Malaysia.
Jobseekers now in Bahrain with work visas but yet to get work permit and those with visas but yet to leave for Bahrain will be in troubles, agencies told The Daily Star yesterday.
The recent restriction came following directives by Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa and was revealed in a statement by search and follow-up assistant under-secretary Colonel Yousuf Al Ghatam.
Earlier on Sunday, a group of lawmakers demanded ban on Bangladeshi workers following death of Mohammed Jassim Dossary killed in an attack after an argument with a Bangladeshi mechanic at a workshop in Suq Waqif, Hamad Town on Friday.
Bahrain, which is home to around 1.6 lakh Bangladeshis, is presently the third largest manpower receiving country in the Persian Gulf.
Bangladesh Embassy Charge d’ Affairs Saiful Islam told The Gulf Daily News on Monday the move had left them in shock and said officials would appeal against it.
“For one person the government is punishing a whole nation, which is not acceptable to us,” he said. “We will appeal to the government to reconsider this and I will contact the interior minister and other high-ranking officials.”
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary Abdul Matin Chowdhury yesterday told The Daily Star they have not yet received the news from Bahrain but read it on newspapers.
“Our mission in Bahrain is already contacting Bahrain side about the matter,” he said.
In a reaction to the ban, a recruiting agent said this particular country is not a very big labour market for Bangladesh, but the fact is that it will have bad impact on Bangladeshi workers.
Meanwhile, vehemently opposing the Bahraini MPs’ demand, now-dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights vice-president Nabeel Rajab told The Gulf Daily News on Monday the move is “racist” and “shameful”.
“If a Bahraini commits a similar or even worse crime what action would they take? Would they deport all Bahrainis from here?
“If an American or a European had committed the crime instead of the Bangladeshi, would the MPs dare raise their voice against them, forget imposing a ban on their countries? This is pure racial discrimination.
“Bangladeshis, like all other expatriate nationalities, should first be appreciated for all the contributions they have made to our country. Instead, our MPs forget the hard work and sweat of thousands of expatriates and plan to deport them all based on one person’s actions.”
Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society regional and international relations director Faisal Fulad said a group of lawmakers’ proposal was against Bahraini culture and heritage.
“We are against this move because it is absolutely wrong to ban a whole nation for one person’s crime,” said Mr Fulad, who is also a Shura Council member.
“People from every country have flaws in their characters in one way or the other, including Bahrainis. That doesn’t mean that all of them should be sent back home.
“It is up to the court to decide the punishment and not MPs.”
Bangladesh’s remittance from overseas jobs to fall
August 27, 2008
Bangladesh’s manpower export and the remittance from it could come down in the next two years as major labour markets in the Gulf region and Malaysia have banned fresh recruitment or reduced quotas, said a newspaper.
Quoting experts, the Daily Star said the government’s target for this year to reach 900,000 recruits for overseas employment was unlikely to be met.
Economists suggest immediate actions fearing that this trend will soon hit the overall annual remittance from manpower export that is the second highest after the garment exports.
‘We may not feel the blow of the bans or cut in overseas employment immediately, but after two to three years, remittance will definitely dry up if no major changes take place,’ warned Syed Ashraf Ali, former executive director of Bangladesh Bank.
‘The government should make overseas jobs cost-effective. Because of bad competition sponsored by manpower exporters, workers pay too much money. This should be addressed,’ said M.G. Kibria of Morgan State University, who recently conducted a study on Bangladesh’s manpower export and remittance.
Around five million Bangladeshis are working abroad. Of them, about three million are living in the Gulf and sending approximately 70 percent of the remittance.
The number of Bangladeshis working abroad during 2000-05 ranged between 180,000 to 250,000, while about 380,000 workers went abroad in 2006 and 832,000 in 2007 seeking jobs, according to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training.
Bangladesh also witnessed good growth of remittance, which was $1.88 billion in 2000-01 financial year and it went up to $5.97 billion in 2006-07. In the same year, the country received $1.73 billion from Saudi Arabia, $680.7 million from Kuwait and $80 million from Bahrain.
But from May 27 this year, Bahrain stopped issuing work permits to Bangladeshi nationals, except the professionals. Things are no different in Saudi Arabia also from where thousands of Bangladeshi nationals had to leave after the kingdom unofficially stopped renewing residential permits to them.
Kuwait stopped hiring manpower from Bangladesh in late 2006 on grounds that Bangladeshis resort to crimes, while Malaysia stopped issuing fresh visas in October last year following problems created by Malaysian employers and recruiting agencies on both sides.
Though around 400,000 workers were sent to Malaysia, serious problems of cheating, exploitation and underpayment have been reported. Cheated, around 2,000 of them returned home in last one year.
Syed Ashraf Ali, who has recently conducted a study on overseas employment and remittance for the Asian Development Bank, said the recent events taking place in Bangladesh’s labour markets were a blow to the overseas employment sector.
‘If there is no outflow of workers and if expatriates working for years are forced to return home, inflow of remittance will automatically come down,’ he said.
The government’s most important task should be to train potential migrants as per the requirements of the labour-receiving countries and to strongly check irregularities and fraudulent practices.
‘Remittance is like a goldmine for Bangladesh. It plays a key role for stability in balance of payment and mitigating unemployment problems here,’ said economist Atiar Rahman, chairman of Unnayan Samannay, a research organisation.
‘Banning or curtailing recruitment of Bangladeshis in the tested countries will definitely have major negative impact on our economy. We will be in deep crisis if this source of remittance is destroyed,’ said Rahman.
‘Today’s problems are actually part of the failure of governance,’ he added.
The Daily Star Sunday said in an editorial that Bangladesh missions should have database of all the workers abroad and should respond to the problems immediately.
Thoughts on increasing NRB Remittances
July 20, 2008
Remittances by non-resident Bangladeshis (NRB) through official channels hit $ 6.4 billion in 2007 as per the World Bank, and the caretaker government has shown keen interest in increasing that.
Right after the recent NRB conference in Dhaka interested NRBs held follow-up meetings to try to capitalise on the momentum generated. The march continues. The Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) organised a roundtable discussion on February 5 on increasing remittances from abroad.
A high-powered GOB team is expected to visit Saudi Arabia to explore the problems of Bangladeshi workers. The Daily Star published related back-to-back articles by two NRBs, Dewan Sadek Afzal (”Promoting NRB Investment” in the February 5 issue), and Halimur Rashid Khan (”Increasing Remittance from Non-Resident Bangladeshis” in the February 6 issue).
We hope that the policy prescriptions that follow from the BEI roundtable, the findings and recommendations that the GOB team brings back, and the prescriptions by others to increase NRB remittances will receive due consideration, careful evaluation, and coordinated, committed and resolute implementation by the GOB.
Visit to KSA
Dignitaries going abroad often end up meeting, and discussing with, those who can gain access to them — those in positions of influence, those connected to embassy officials, and those who are leaders of socio-cultural groups and political parties. It is important to get the views and opinions of such people. It is also important to get the viewpoints of a cross-section of expatriate Bangladeshis.
It will be naïve to think that the Bangladesh Embassy officials in KSA do not know about the plight of Bangladeshi white-collar workers in the Kingdom — about the stories of gross underpayment in brazen violation of contracts, mistreatment and abuse by employers, inability to get leave to visit Bangladesh when contractually due, and so on.
This has been going on for decades, and in other countries. But, as with many other problems of the country, no remedial actions have been taken. The voiceless, helpless, and hapless poor workers of Bangladesh toiling in various countries and earning foreign exchange for Bangladesh continue to suffer. Most of them manage to get a job abroad after paying a fortune to manpower agencies — often by selling their small plots of land, or by borrowing from relatives — only to find that they receive a salary much less than what their contract stipulated.
This story has been told again and again and again! But has anything been done to rectify this recurring state of affairs? I wonder if any manpower agency responsible for this has been taken to task. I wonder if the government has intervened to regulate the exorbitant amounts, which are way above the costs incurred, that helpless job-seekers have to pay to manpower agencies. We want the goose to lay golden eggs. But what have we done for the goose?
BEI roundtable
I hope that the BEI will submit concrete, feasible and practicable proposals to relevant government ministries on strategies for increasing remittances. That should not be the end of it. Government functionaries are busy people, and they can easily lose sight of the proposals if there is no follow-up.
The organisers of the NRB Conference took pains to put all presented papers in the form of a book. A further helpful step would have been to extract major findings and recommendations from the papers and the discussions, group them into related categories, and forward them to respective ministries as actionable items. This step would have needed follow-up. But who could do that?
To ensure something like that, the recommendation for an NRB Secretariat by Dewan Sadek Afzal merits consideration. In his timely, well-reasoned and articulate article he has also called for developing mechanism to establish planned neighbourhoods.
NRB Secretariat
As I envision, an NRB Secretariat can help the GOB and NRBs in a number of ways. It can carry out functions like the following:
* Identify problems, challenges, prospects and opportunities faced by NRBs.
* Help the government in designing appropriate policies and strategies to transform idle manpower into a veritable asset.
* Survey and monitor manpower needs (by type and quantity) of manpower-deficient countries, and report to government and private vocational training institutions geared towards producing skilled and semi-skilled manpower for foreign markets.
* Investigate unfair actions and practices of manpower exporting and importing agencies, and recommend to GOB appropriate actions against the perpetrators.
* Create databases of NRB experts in various fields for possible short-term use of their services by the GOB, universities, and local and international agencies operating in Bangladesh.
* Store and disseminate information on the technology, methods and processes that can be transferred to Bangladesh, with information on relevant experts who can act as transfer agents.
* Gather information on attractive investment sectors/projects in Bangladesh for sharing investment ideas with potential NRB investors.
* Identify and promote less expensive, faster and safer ways through which NRBs can remit money to Bangladesh.
* Advise the GOB on ways to clean the morass and web that investors from abroad have to go through for investing in Bangladesh.
* Advise potential NRB investors about GOB approval processes.
* Identify and promote investment vehicles that will motivate NRBs to invest in Bangladesh.
* Advise GOB on the modalities and approaches for establishing planned neighbourhoods around district towns to facilitate purchases of lands by NRBs in an orderly and efficient manner.
After analysing the needs of various categories of NRBs, the above list can be fine-tuned.
Establishing planned neighbourhoods
A significant part of NRB savings go towards meeting real estate needs. Dewan Sadek Afzal’s article puts forward a compelling plan of action whereby this need of NRBs can be met in a planned and orderly manner. It will create planned neighbourhoods as well as increase remittances.
But the government has to simplify the process through which it allots plots, so that it is fast, fair and transparent. Why should it take a few years to allot plots after the application and initial deposit have been accepted?
Parcels of land developed near various district towns should be earmarked for allotment only to NRBs, so that influential politicians and persons cannot be the beneficiaries of such parcels. If the process of allotment is a lottery, it should be strictly that, and not be subject to political caprice.
In the event that an applicant is not allotted a plot, his/her money should be speedily refunded after following a simplified procedure. If it is protracted period, sufferers lose in terms of purchasing power, and also have to forgo the opportunity to earn on that amount over the period delayed. Who will compensate them for that? I am disregarding the fact that they may have to spend some money to get back the deposited money.
This brings me to the all-important point; we cannot expect to increase remittances in a vacuum. Some of the factors that have a bearing on remittances are:
* Creating a stable and conducive socio-economic and political climate that can help create a functioning economy.
* Strengthening the institutions that establish rule of law, strengthen oversight, weed out corruption and create public confidence in the police and the courts.
* Simplifying bureaucratic entanglements and regulations.
* Easing infrastructure blockages (power shortages, transportation bottlenecks, port and customs delays).
* Enhancing technology and telecommunications facilities for greater integration with world markets, etc.
These factors would contribute toward creating a favourable investment climate to attract not only NRBs but also MNCs.
A factor that is not necessarily related to creating a favourable investment climate, but can, nevertheless, significantly increase remittances is exporting ever increasing numbers of skilled manpower (train them first so they can earn more, save more, and send more). However, it is well known that the presence of an educated and skilled workforce in a country helps to attract foreign direct investment.
If one creates the fastest, safest, and cheapest remittance mechanism, but the factors mentioned above are absent in Bangladesh, remittance will increase to some extent, but not dramatically. It will also increase as more people find jobs abroad, but not dramatically. The super-rich NRBs will keep out (as will most MNCs), and they are the large players. They will prefer to invest in safe havens.