Reuters, DHAKA, April 23: Bangladesh launched a state-run Expatriate Welfare Bank on Wednesday to fund workers going overseas and to handle their remittances, a major source of foreign exchange.
About seven million Bangladeshis are employed abroad, most of them in the Middle East, and they send home about $10 billion a year, Finance Ministry officials said.
Remittances are the second biggest source of foreign earnings for Bangladesh after garment exports, which are worth about $16 billion a year.
"Workers can borrow funds from the bank at lower interest rates to meet expenses for going abroad," Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said while launching the bank.
"The bank will also help expatriate workers to send money to their families in Bangladesh at lower handling charges," she said.
A senior official of the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment said it was hoped the bank would boost remittances.
The bank, with an initial paid up capital of 5 billion taka ($69 million), will offer loans to workers at 9 percent interest, lower than that offered by commercial banks.
"Borrowers will have to offer a collateral, but for those who cannot, there will be a supervisory loan," the ministry official said.
Bangladesh's state managed and private banks charge more than 13 percent interest on general loans.
No comments:
Post a Comment