The country’s remittance inflow decreased to $13.83 billion in the just-concluded year from $14.17 billion in 2012 against the backdrop of downward manpower exports during the period. According to Bangladesh Bank data released on Wednesday, remittance inflow decreased by 2.39 per cent in 2013 compared with that of a rise of 16.49 per cent in 2012. The expatriate Bangladeshis sent greenback worth $12.17 billion in 2011.
The shrinking manpower export, lack of comprehensive policies, less export of skilled workers and political instability caused the reduction of remittances inflow to Bangladesh, officials and manpower experts told New Age.
According to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training data, 6,07,798 workers were employed overseas during 2012 but only 3,99,333 workers went abroad till December 22, 2013.
Recruitment of Bangladeshi workers virtually stopped to Kuwait and United Arab Emirates while substantially reduced to Oman, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia over the years, BMET officials said.
They also said that Bangladeshi workers were earning low wages abroad due to global economic rescission and hence sending less remittance to the country.
Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies secretary general Ali Haider Chowdhury told New Age in last week that Saudi Arabia — from where Bangladesh received the highest remittances — had drastically shrunken recruitment of workers.
Many Bangladeshi migrant workers are passing ‘hard times’ in the Middle East countries due to prevailing Arab unrest and so called ‘Arab Spring’, he said.
More mobilisation of workers with joint initiatives of the government and the private recruitment agencies is essential to improve the situation, he said.
Anwara Begum, senior research fellow at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, told New Age that the inflow of remittances reduced due to current political instability along with less overseas recruitment during the last year.
She suggested the government sending more skilled workers by giving proper training and language skills to strengthen their capacity abroad under a ‘transparent process of recruitment.’
The BB data showed that the inflow of remittances also dropped in December year-on-year, decreasing by 5.50 per cent to $12.16 billion from $12.87 billion in the same month last year.
The private commercial banks received $780.47 million in inward remittances in December while the state-run commercial banks received $405.58 million, foreign commercial banks $15.41 million, and specialised banks got $15.03 million.
In December, Islami Bank Bangladesh received the highest amount of remittances — $316.74 million — among the private commercial banks, while Agrani Bank got the highest amount of remittances — $150.60 million — among the state-run banks.
-With New Age input
