expatriate Bangladeshis - Dhaka Mirror

Remittance inflow soars by 19pc in 7 months

Admin — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:31:56 +0000

Remittance inflow increased by 19.57 per cent to $8.71 billion in the first seven months of the current financial year compared with that of the corresponding period of FY 2011-12 when expatriate Bangladeshis had remitted $7.28 billion, showed Bangladesh Bank data released on Monday.
The remittance in January also increased by 7.64 per cent compared with that of the corresponding month in 2012.
The remittance in January stood at $1,314.74 million against $1,221.41 million in January 2012.
A BB official told New Age on Monday that the expatriate Bangladeshis had remitted more foreign currencies in the first seven months of FY 2012-13 as Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha were celebrated in August and October.
Besides, a significant number of Bangladeshi citizens went aboard in the period resulting that the remittance continued to be in upward trend, he said.
He said the remittance would cross $14 billion easily after end of FY 2012-13 if the existing inflow of remittance continued in the rest of the months of this financial year.
The World Bank earlier in a report had projected that the country’s remittance would reach $14 billion in this financial year.
Another BB official said the central bank had purchased more than $2.549 billion from the local commercial banks between July 1 and January 23 to keep the value of the greenback strong against the taka for encouraging the expatriate Bangladeshis and exporters.
The BB data, however, showed that the greenback continued to depreciate against the taka frequently failing the central bank’s effort.
The dollar was quoted at Tk 79.20 in the inter-bank forex market on Monday against Tk 79.75 to Tk 79.80 on January 1, 2013.
The private commercial banks received $833.61 million in remittance in January while the state-owned commercial banks received $445.38 million, foreign commercial banks $20.30 million, and specialised banks $15.45 million.
Islami Bank Bangladesh received the highest remittance of $361.41 million among the PCBs, while Agrani Bank received the highest remittance of $156.04 million among the SCBs.

-With New Age input

The post Remittance inflow soars by 19pc in 7 months appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.

Country’s remittance tops $10.6b in 11 months

Admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 05:19:26 +0000

The country received $10.606 billion in remittance from expatriate Bangladeshis in 11 months of the current fiscal year.
In May, the amount of inward remittance was $993.25 million, higher by $90.20 million of the remittance inflow in the same month of 2010 when the amount was $903.05 million.
The country in March this year received a record high of $1.09 billion for the first time despite the recent unrest in some middle-east and African countries.
The higher inflow indicated that the ongoing unrest in some middle-east and African states did not have negative impact yet on the remittance inflow.
There was a concern over a negative impact on remittance inflow in future as hundreds of Bangladeshis lost their jobs in the troubled countries including a big number in Libya.
Official statistics, however, show a total of 95,194 Bangladeshis used to work in Libya until January this year, which was only 1.3 per cent of the total 72 lakh expatriate Bangladeshis.
The BB official said the remittance inflow in the past 11 months of the outgoing financial year marked around 16 per cent growth over the same period of the past fiscal year when the growth was 22.41 per cent.
‘If this trend continues or even declines a little bit, the total inflow of remittance will be more than $11 billion, a new record in the countries remittance receipt’, said the official.

Courtesy of BSS/New Age

The post Country’s remittance tops $10.6b in 11 months appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.

NRBs dream own business at home

Admin — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:19:48 +0000

A majority of the expatriate Bangladeshis living in the Gulf countries such as United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain want to start their own business upon returning home, a study revealed.
A recent survey by Western Union on what the expatriates will do with 100,000 dirhams (Tk 20 lakh), if they win the prize of its ‘Send Money & Win Big’ promotion revealed the ambition of the non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs), the leading money transfer company said in a statement.
The Gulf countries are home to about 80 percent of Bangladesh’s total expatriate workers of over 60 lakh, with Saudi Arabia topping the list with over 22 lakh workers, contributing about 10 percent to the country’s national economic growth.
More than two-thirds or 74 percent of the NRBs want to start their own business, while 26 percent wished to buy a home and 19 percent wished to donate to charity, according to the survey.
Ratheesh Kumar, Western Union’s regional vice president for South Asia and South East Asia, said: “The Western Union’s survey holds true to what all global workers aspire towards and that is building a better life for their families and loved ones.”
He said the consumer survey helped the company draw out the true desires of the NRB customers working in the Gulf. “Leaving home to create a better future back home is entrepreneurial itself, the study clearly indicates this passion and focus is still strong as ever.”
Kumar said in spite of migrating to the Gulf in search of better employment opportunities, NRBs have not lost out on their entrepreneurial spirit. “The results of the Western Union survey corroborate this statement, illustrating that NRBs are an enterprising, adventurous, risk-taking and a business-minded lot.”
Zaan e Alam, a Bangladeshi who works at a restaurant in Saudi Arabia, said, “If I win 100,000 dirhams, I will start my own restaurant back home. I will save the rest of the money for my future use.”
The second most important thing people said they wished to do is buying a house, the survey said.
The research also showed that 9 percent of the respondents would like to spend money on family, 6 percent would like to save, whereas 4 percent would like to buy either land or car.
Gyasuddin, another NRB who works at a grocery store in the UAE, said: “I will go back to Bangladesh and build a home for my family as well as build a mosque in my village. I would also like to use the money by donating to the poor and needy.”
Bangladeshi expatriates sent home around $11 billion worth of remittances in 2010.
Western Union operates a network of over 7,500 agent locations in Bangladesh, taking remittances to the beneficiaries.

Via: The Daily Star

The post NRBs dream own business at home appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.