Bangladesh: Remittance inflow drops after 14 yrs

Dhaka, July 4 (New Age): The country’s remittance inflow registered a negative growth in financial year 2013-14 for the first time in last 14 years against the backdrop of downward manpower exports during the period, said economists and Bangladesh Bank officials. According to BB data released on Thursday, remittance inflow decreased by 1.61 per cent in the FY14 compared with that of a rise of 12.59 per cent in FY13. The expatriate Bangladeshis sent US$ 14.22 billion in the FY14 against US$ 14.46 billion in the FY13. The inflow of remittance was US$ 12.84 billion in the FY12. The BB data showed that the inflow of remittance had maintained an increased trend between the FY01 and the FY13. The BB data, however, revealed that the remittance inflow increased by 21.55 per cent to US$ 1.28 billion in June, 2014 from US$ 1.05 billion during the same month in FY2013. The expatriates Bangladeshis sent a significant amount of the greenback in last month ahead of Eid-ul-Fitre, the BB officials said. Former caretaker government adviser Mirza Azizul Islam told New Age on Thursday that the shrinking manpower export, lack of comprehensive policies and less export of skilled workers caused the reduction of remittances inflow into Bangladesh. According to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training data, a total of 96,068 workers went abroad with jobs from January to March of the current year while some 1,07,626 had gone abroad with jobs during the same period in 2013, showing a decline of 11,567 overseas employment in three months. The BMET also recorded that about four lakh workers including male and female got overseas jobs from January to December in 2013 against over six lakh workers in 2012. Mirza Aziz said that the remittance inflow would not increase in the coming days if the country fails to push up its manpower export. He suggested the government to discover the new countries to increase manpower export. The government should take initiatives to send more skilled workers by giving proper training so that they (workers) will be able to repatriate more foreign exchange, he said. The BB data showed that the private commercial banks received US$ 821.72 million in inward remittances in June while the state-run commercial banks received US$ 431.03 million, foreign commercial banks US$ 17.14 million, and specialised banks got US$ 16.50 million. In June, Islami Bank Bangladesh received the highest amount of remittances — US$ 313.61 million — among the private commercial banks, while Agrani Bank got the highest amount of remittances — US$ 149.53 million — among the state-run banks.