Bangladesh: Quarterly Report on Remittance Inflows - April - June 2017

Transcription

1. Quarterly Report on Remittance Inflows : April-June 20171 Bangladesh Bank Research Department External Economics Division 1 Comments on any aspects of the report are highly welcome and can be sent to Ms. Shampa Chakraborty, Joint Director, Research Department, Bangladesh Bank. E-mail:shampa.chakraborty@bb.org.bd.
2. Introduction Percent Remittance is the second highest Graph-1 : Remittance as Percentage of source of foreign currency earnings of GDP, Export and Import and Its Growth 60.00 Bangladesh after exports of 50.00 readymade garments (RMG). 40.00 GDP However, remittance can be Export 30.00 Import considered as the highest one in net 20.00 Growth 10.00 earning term since in case of exporting 0.00 RMG a significant portion of earnings -10.00 is foregone for importing its raw -20.00 materials. Remittance plays an important role on the overall economy of Bangladesh. World Bank ranked Bangladesh as eighth in the world for remittance inflow based on the information of 2015. Bangladesh joined in the 10 billion USD club of remittance inflow in FY10. Remittance inflow to Bangladesh experienced 552.3 percent growth in FY13 over FY03 and the size of yearly remittance inflow in FY13 is more than twenty three times over the inflow of FY95. Contribution of remittance inflow to GDP is also rising. The share of remittance inflow in GDP for Bangladesh was 7.5 percent in FY07 which has reached to 9.6 percent in FY13. It stood at 5.17 percent in FY17. Foreign employment and remittance sent by the Bangladeshi expatriates have immense contribution to the economic development of Bangladesh in many significant ways as lowering unemployment, poverty alleviation and swelling up foreign exchange reserve. The pattern and use of remittance is the most important issue for economic development. If expatriates‟ earnings are invested in productive fields, they can contribute to output growth, employment, etc. In addition, remittance plays a supportive role in boosting up current account surplus. Gross remittance earnings decreased by 14.5 percent to USD 12769.5 million in FY17 compared to USD 14931.16 million of FY16, which is 5.17 percent of country's GDP and 49.2 percent of total export earnings during FY17 (Table-1). 1
3. Table-1 : Remittance as Percentage of GDP, Export and Import and its Growth FY Remittance as % of GDP Remittance as % of Export Earnings (f.o.b) Remittance as % of Import Payments (f.o.b) Growth (%) of Remittance FY07 FY08 FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16 FY17 7.51 8.64 9.44 9.52 9.05 9.63 9.64 8.21 7.87 6.74 5.17 49.60 55.93 62.11 67.80 50.64 53.58 54.43 47.80 49.08 43.61 49.22 38.54 40.62 47.70 46.29 34.61 38.59 43.07 42.38 37.65 38.18 - 24.50 32.39 22.28 13.40 6.03 10.24 12.51 -1.61 7.65 -2.51 -14.48 Remittance Inflows: April-June 2017 2 Apr-Jun 17 Jan-Mar 17 Oct-Dec 16 Jul-Sep 16 Apr-Jun 16 Jan-Mar 16 Oct-Dec 15 Jul-Sep 15 Apr-Jun 15 Million USD Remittance sent by the Bangladeshi Graph 2: Trend of Quarterly Remittance expatriates stood at USD 3574.86 4500 million during the 4th quarter of FY17 4000 3500 (April-June 2017), which is 18.1 3000 2500 percent higher and 7.7 percent lower 2000 1500 than the previous quarter and the same 1000 quarter of the preceding year respectively. During the quarter under report, rise in remittance was mainly because of higher number of migration in the previous quarter of FY17 to most of the source countries. In addition, legal actions taken by the Government of some source countries against using informal channel for sending remittance might have positive impact to shoot up remittance in formal channel to Bangladesh. However, the inflows of remittance has declined by 14.5 percent to USD 12769.5 million in FY17 compared to USD 14931.16 million of FY16 due to historic drop of global oil price, recent political turmoil in some Middle East countries, increase of digital hundi (using apps and software), return of a large number of Bangladeshi expatriates at home and depreciation of foreign currency against dollar etc. Besides, the gap in exchange rate at the bank and open market may also encourage the expatriates to remit their earnings through informal channels.
4. Country wise Remittance Inflows Country-wise remittance inflow Graph 3 : Major Country-wise Share (%) of Remittance inflows in Total Remittance Inflows: April- June 2017 during April-June 2017 shows that the largest amount of remittance has been received KSA 17.00% Others 23.29% from KSA (USD 607.1 million), which is 17.0 percent of total remittance inflows UK 6.73% (Graph-3), followed by UAE (16.4 percent), USA Oman 7.02% (13.7 percent), United Kingdom (6.7 percent), Kuwait (8.0 UAE 16.43% Kuwait 7.98% percent), USA 13.71% Malaysia 7.84% Malaysia (7.8 percent), Oman (7.0 percent), and other countries (23.3 percent). Region wise remittance inflows, shows that 57.1 percent of total remittances has been received from the Gulf1 countries during April-June quarter of FY17, followed by USA (13.7 percent), EU3 countries (11.4 percent), Asia-Pacific2 countries (10.1 percent), and other countries (7.7 percent). The amount of remittances received from Gulf countries stood at USD 2041.1 million during the 4th quarter of FY17 which is 19.3 percent higher and 8.8 percent lower compared to the previous and the corresponding quarter of the previous year respectively (Table-2). The amount of remittance inflows from Asia-Pacific and EU countries have increased by 18.8 and 10.0 percent respectively during the quarter under report compared to the previous quarter. 1 Gulf Countries are KSA, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya and Iran. Asia-Pacific countries are Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. 3 EU countries are United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. 2 3
5. Table-2 : Country group wise Remittance Inflows (Million USD) April-June'16 Gulf Countries 2238.15 July-Sep'16 Oct-Dec' 16 Jan-Mar' 17 April-June'17 1852.59 1701.65 1711.59 2041.07 57.81 57.08 58.25 56.53 57.10 KSA 720.94 603.64 541.40 515.14 607.06 UAE 724.98 554.73 468.89 482.43 587.49 Qatar 129.09 134.32 132.95 140.31 168.44 Oman 241.4 229.69 201.93 215.17 250.92 Bahrain 112.22 84.00 96.84 114.82 141.48 Kuwait 267.99 245.84 259.03 243.26 285.18 Libya 0.91 0.67 0.61 0.45 0.50 Iran 0.04 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 EU Countries 357.37 9.23 303.63 9.35 266.78 9.13 371.54 12.27 408.74 11.43 United Kingdom 244.47 168.90 159.70 239.02 240.54 Germany 7.76 6.25 7.41 7.05 11.04 Italy 105.14 128.48 99.67 125.47 157.16 Asia-Pacific Countries 466.32 413.90 348.41 303.79 361.00 12.05 12.75 11.93 10.03 10.10 Japan 5.95 5.34 4.53 5.89 7.16 Malaysia 355.33 321.52 269.42 232.26 280.42 Singapore 105.04 87.04 74.46 65.64 73.42 USA 566 430.06 379.55 389.20 490.05 14.62 13.25 12.99 12.85 13.71 243.64 245.27 224.68 251.62 274.00 7.56 7.69 8.31 7.66 3245.75 2921.07 3027.74 3574.86 Other Countries 6.29 Total 3871.48 Source: Foreign Exchange Policy Department, Bangladesh Bank. Note: Numbers in Italic indicate percentage share in total remittance. 4
6. Country wise Migration In Number About two lakh and forty seven Graph 4 : Country wise Migration thousand Bangladeshi have migrated 180000 160000 to abroad during April-June 2017 140000 120000 (Table-3 and Graph-4) for 100000 80000 employment, which is 9.3 percent 60000 40000 lower than the previous quarter and 20000 0 36.0 percent higher than the same quarter of previous year. The highest number (56.9 percent) of April-June 16 July-Sept 16 Oct-Dec 16 Jan-March 17 April-June 17 Bangladeshis have migrated to KSA during April-June 2017, followed by Qatar (10.5 percent), Oman (9.0 percent), Kuwait (5.2 percent), Malaysia (4.8 percent), Singapore (4.0 percent), Jordan (2.5 percent), Bahrain (1.1 percent), Lebanon (0.8 percent) UAE (0.5 percent), and other countries (4.6 percent). Table-3 shows the yearly data on country-wise migration from 2003 to 2016 and quarterly data from April-June 2016 to April-June 2017. Table-3: Trend of Country wise Migration (In Number) Year KSA UAE Kuwait Oman Qatar Bahrain 2003 162131 37346 26722 4029 94 2004 139031 47012 41108 4435 2005 80425 61978 47029 2006 109513 130204 Lebanon Jordan Malaysia Singapore Others Total 7482 28 5304 11054 254190 1268 9194 224 6948 23738 272958 4827 2114 10716 2911 9651 33051 252702 35775 8082 7691 16355 0 2822 20469 20139 30466 381516 2007 204112 226392 4212 17478 15130 16433 3541 494 273201 38324 33292 832609 2008 132124 419355 319 52896 25548 13182 8444 682 131762 56581 34162 875055 2009 14666 258348 10 41704 11672 28426 13941 1691 12402 39581 52837 475278 2010 2011 2012 2013 7069 15030 21232 12654 203308 282734 215452 14241 48 29 2 6 42641 135260 170326 134028 12085 13168 28801 57584 21824 13928 21777 25155 17208 19166 14864 15098 2235 4387 11726 21383 919 742 804 3853 39053 48666 58657 60057 44312 34952 61836 390702 568062 605477 65194 2014 10657 24232 3094 105748 87575 23378 16640 20338 5134 54750 409253 425547 2015 58270 25271 17472 129859 123965 20720 19113 22093 30483 55523 74001 53132 Apr.-June '16 27618 1793 6027 53941 33656 15781 3480 6038 1345 15164 17184 182027 555901 Jul.-Sep. '16 19823 934 13580 42898 23030 24510 3229 4911 13072 12481 14912 173380 Oct.-Dec. '16 66811 2961 14756 43029 29647 20171 3922 5534 1770 12639 10216 211456 2016 143913 8131 39188 188247 120382 72167 15095 23017 40126 54730 52735 757731 Jan.-Mar. '17 161356 1123 12730 28349 25935 13789 2813 4415 2830 9761 9872 272973 Apr.-Jun. '17 140917 1271 12907 22288 25914 % Growth (Apr.Jun. '17 over Jan-12.7 13.2 1.4 -21.4 -0.1 Mar’17) % Growth Apr.Jun. '17 over Apr.Jun. '16) 410.2 -29.1 114.2 -58.7 -23.0 Source: Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, Bangladesh 2681 2048 6287 11794 10023 11387 247517 -80.6 -27.2 42.4 316.7 2.7 15.3 -9.3 -83.0 -41.1 4.1 776.9 -33.9 -33.7 36.0 5
7. Country wise Female Migration In Number Considering the gender wise Graph-5 : Country wise Female Migration migration of Bangladeshi expatriates 22000 to abroad, the number of female 20000 18000 migrants have been increasing 16000 14000 gradually. In April-June 2017 12000 10000 quarter, about 34.4 thousand 8000 6000 Bangladeshi female workers have 4000 2000 been migrated abroad for 0 employment (Table-4), which is 13.0 percent higher and 1.6 percent Apr-Jun 16 Jul-Sep 16 Oct-Dec 16 Jan-Mar 17 Apr-Jun 17 lower than the previous quarter and the same quarter of 2016 respectively. Among the total female migrants, 67.0 percent have been migrated to KSA, followed by Jordan (18.1 percent), Oman (7.5 percent), Qatar (2.8 percent), UAE (2.6 percent), Lebanon (1.4 percent) and Singapore (0.1 percent). The remaining 0.6 percent has been migrated to other countries. Analyzing the data of overseas female employment, it is found that 5.74 lakh female workers have been migrated for overseas employment from 1991 to 2016. While, the total number of overseas workers stood at 96.29 lakh during the same period. Therefore, the percentage share of female workers in total overseas workers is very insignificant (5.97 percent) due to various social and cultural reasons. However, the global demands for some occupations belonged to women (nurse, maid servant, etc.) are increasing in the recent years. Therefore, Government may take necessary initiatives to create demand for overseas employment of the female workers through Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEW&OE) and Bangladeshi Diplomatic Missions in abroad. In addition, private recruiting agencies may play an important role in this context. Table-4 shows the yearly trend of country wise female migration from 2012 to 2016 of quarterly trend from April-June 2016 to April-June 2017 and Graph-5 shows the quarterly trend of country wise female migration from April-June 2016 to April-June 2017. 6
8. Table-4 : Trend of Country-wise Female Migration Year KSA UAE Oman Qatar Bahrain 2012 485 6212 4102 6 38 2013 167 13710 6068 2100 141 2014 13 23214 11584 6452 121 2015 20952 24307 16980 8642 403 Apr-Jun 16 20604 1374 4037 1816 7 Jul-Sep 16 11986 666 2097 721 6 Oct-Dec 16 15660 1075 2777 921 8 2016 68286 5151 12897 5381 79 Jan-Mar 17 20723 942 2821 867 12 Apr-Jun 17 23021 883 2566 977 7 % Growth (Apr-Jun 11.1 -6.3 -9.0 12.7 -41.7 17 over Jan-Mar 17) % Growth Apr-Jun 17 11.7 -35.7 -36.4 -46.2 0.0 over Apr-Jun 16) Source: Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, Bangladesh Lebanon 12496 10750 11990 8782 765 404 447 2450 448 466 4.0 Jordan 11582 21243 20134 21776 5986 4880 5364 22689 4359 6209 42.4 -39.1 3.7 Malaysia 19 23 15 12 0 0 0 8 7 6 -14.3 Singapore 75 133 128 114 29 25 20 104 32 21 -34.4 -27.6 (In Number) Others Total 2289 37304 2065 56400 2356 76007 1750 103718 295 34913 207 20992 323 26604 1043 118088 194 30405 208 34364 7.2 13.0 -29.5 -1.6 Overseas Employment by Skill Group In Number A large number of Bangladeshi expatriates are less/un-skilled, Graph-6: Overseas Employment by Skill Group ( 2001 to 2016) which stood at 37.55 lakh from 3755373 4000000 2001 to 2016. The number of 2413604 3000000 skilled expatriates stood at 24.14 2000000 1080950 lakh during the same period. The 1000000 121875 101838 0 relative composition of skills is changing over time. Four skill groups have been identified based on their profession these are Professionals, skilled, semi-skilled and less skilled. Data on skill group-wise overseas employment from 1976 to 2016 shows that the highest number (49.0 percent) of expatriates are un-skilled followed by skilled (32.5 percent), semi-skilled (15.2 percent) and professional (2.2 percent) (Annexure-1). In 2016, only 0.61 percent of the migrated work force was professional, followed by skilled (42.1 percent), un-skilled (40.1 percent) and semi-skilled (15.83 percent) (Table-5). 7
9. Table-5 : Category wise Migration (In Number) Year Overseas Employment by Skill Group Professional Skilled Semi-Skilled Unskilled 5940 42742 30702 109581 188965 3.14 22.62 16.25 57.99 100.00 2002 14450 56265 36025 118516 225256 6.41 24.98 15.99 52.61 100.00 2003 15862 74530 29236 134562 254190 6.24 29.32 11.50 52.94 100.00 12202 110177 28327 113670 8582 272958 4.47 40.36 10.38 41.64 3.14 100.00 1945 113655 24546 100316 12240 252702 0.77 44.98 9.71 39.70 4.84 100.00 925 115468 33965 220436 10722 381516 2001 2004 2005 2006 Others Total 0.24 30.27 8.90 57.78 2.81 100.00 676 165338 183673 472700 10222 832609 0.08 19.86 22.06 56.77 1.23 100.00 1864 292364 132825 437088 10914 875055 0.21 33.41 15.18 49.95 1.25 100.00 1426 134265 84517 246585 8485 475278 0.30 28.25 17.78 51.88 1.79 100.00 2010 387 90621 20016 272118 7560 390702 0.10 23.19 5.12 69.65 1.93 100.00 2011 1192 229149 28729 301552 7440 568062 0.21 40.34 5.06 53.08 1.31 100.00 36084 173331 104721 284153 9509 607798 5.94 28.52 17.23 46.75 1.56 100.00 689 133754 62528 203058 9224 409253 0.17 32.68 15.28 49.62 2.25 100.00 2014 1730 148766 70095 193403 11690 425684 0.41 34.95 16.47 45.43 2.75 100.00 2015 1828 214328 91099 243929 4697 555881 0.33 38.56 16.39 43.88 0.84 100.00 4638 318851 119946 303706 10590 757731 0.61 42.08 15.83 40.08 1.40 100.00 101838 2413604 1080950 3755373 121875 7473640 1.36 32.29 14.46 50.25 1.63 100.00 2007 2008 2009 2012 2013 2016 Total (2001 to 2016) Source: Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, Bangladesh. Note: Italic numbers indicate percentage share of employment by skill group in total employment. 8
10. Bank wise Remittance Inflow : April-June 2017 As the most important functionary of the Graph-7:Bank wise Remittance Inflow: financial system, banks drive the legal April-June 2017 channels for remittance mobilization. A SOCB FCB 928.64 large number of Bangladeshi expatriates 34.31 25.98% 0.96% are working abroad and sending home SB their hard earned foreign currencies 34.71 0.97% through banking channel. They have been sending on an average USD 3.98 PCB billion per year from 1976 to 2016. Non2577.2 resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) sent USD 72.09% 13.61 billion to Bangladesh in 2016 compared to USD 15.27 billion in 2015. Most of the commercial banks in Bangladesh are providing services to a large number of migrants working abroad through collecting their remittances from all over the world and distributing this money to their beneficiaries as possible shortest period. Among the different group of commercial banks, Private Commercial Banks (PCBs) collect the highest amount of remittance, followed by State owned Commercial Banks (SOCBs), Foreign Commercial Banks (FCBs) and Specialized Banks (SB). During April-June 2017, SOCBs have collected USD 928.64 million (25.98 percent of total), which is 14.7 percent higher and 21.9 percent lower than previous quarter and the same quarter of the previous year respectively. Among all SOCBs, Agrani Bank Ltd. is in the top position with USD 357.28 million and Sonali Bank Ltd. has attained the second position with USD 286.35 million. During the period under report, PCBs have collected USD 2577.2 million (72.09 percent of total), which is 19.7 percent higher than previous quarter and 0.8 percent lower than same quarter of preceding year. Among the PCBs, Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd. (IBBL) has collected highest amount of remittance. IBBL has collected USD 700.3 million, which is around 19.6 percent of total remittance inflow of the country. During April-June 2017, FCBs have collected USD 34.31 million (0.96 percent of total), which is 2.9 percent and 25.8 percent lower than the previous quarter and the same quarter of 2016 respectively. Among FCBs, Standard Chartered bank has collected the highest amount of remittance with USD 12.41 million. During April-June 2017, Bangladesh Krishi Bank has received only USD 34.71 million as remittance. It is observed that along with the above-mentioned banks some other banks (Janata Bank Ltd., Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd., South East bank Ltd., National Bank Ltd., Uttara Bank Ltd., Bank Asia Ltd., Pubali Bank Ltd. and Woori Bank etc.) have also contributed in collecting remittance during April-June 2017. The trend of bank-wise remittance inflows (on quarterly basis) is shown in Table-6. 9
11. Table-6 :Bank-wise Remittance Inflow (Quarterly Basis) (Million USD) Bank Name Nationalized Commercial Banks April-June 16 July-Sep 16 1188.40 999.34 (30.70) (30.79) 362.23 289.95 Sonali Bank 434.59 375.12 Agrani Bank 327.05 278.74 Janata Bank 64.05 55.18 Rupali Bank Ltd 0.48 0.35 Basic Bank Ltd Specialized Banks 37.13 31.47 (0.96) (0.97) 37.13 31.47 Bangladesh Krishi Bank Private Commercial Banks 2598.32 2176.61 (67.11) (67.06) IBBL 926.21 780.34 (23.92) (24.04) 166.28 141.34 National Bank Ltd 130.59 119.88 Uttara Bank Ltd 75.5 60.29 BRAC Bank Ltd 136.99 114.60 Pubali Bank Ltd 84.91 66.75 Prime Bank Ltd 59.15 50.67 AB Bank Ltd 74.01 56.79 NCCBL 12.68 10.15 Eastern Bank Ltd 139.84 98.24 Bank Asia Ltd. 71.02 48.68 South East Bank Ltd. 57.15 38.14 The City Bank Ltd 33.53 13.30 Dhaka Bank Ltd 39.8 45.64 Mutual Trust Bank Ltd. 69.39 56.66 The Trust Bank Ltd 169.33 142.61 Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd 6.86 7.27 ShahjalalIslami Bank 19.71 12.19 IFIC Bank Ltd 21.47 17.81 UCBL 77.00 78.27 Mercantile Bank Ltd. 38.00 22.32 Jamuna Bank Ltd 25.67 8.44 The Premier Bank Ltd 10.24 56.07 Exim Bank Ltd 43.19 56.07 Social Islami Bank Ltd. 0.28 0.05 ICB Islamic Bank 20.66 23.76 First Security Bank Ltd. 2.95 2.15 One Bank Ltd 34.36 38.05 Al-ArafahIslami Bank Ltd. 25.03 14.90 Standard Bank Ltd 3.47 3.07 BD Com. Bank Ltd. 0.59 0.56 NRB Commercial Bank 22.47 20.51 Other Banks Foreign commercial Banks 46.21 38.33 (1.19) (1.18) 14.08 9.37 HSBC 17.40 13.57 Standard Chartered Bank 10.83 11.63 Woori Bank Ltd 3.74 3.65 Com. Bank of Ceylon 0.02 0.01 Citi Bank NA 0.05 0.07 Bank Al Falah 0.06 0.02 State Bank of India 0.01 0.01 Habib Bank Ltd 0.02 0.00 National Bank of Pakistan Total 3871.48 3245.76 Source: Statistics Department, Bangladesh Bank. Note: Numbers in bracket indicate percentage share of total remittance. 10 Oct-Dec 16 891.47 (30.52) 281.98 325.56 240.79 42.87 0.27 30.49 (1.04) 30.49 1965.05 (67.27) 659.94 (22.59) 118.89 98.93 59.27 100.84 62.41 64.73 49.94 18.97 80.72 51.53 61.31 6.86 44.68 72.04 124.65 6.48 8.14 16.57 56.84 42.79 15.85 7.54 45.78 0.03 17.12 1.92 35.88 15.79 2.79 0.40 15.44 34.06 (1.17) 8.76 14.17 8.69 2.24 0.02 0.06 0.09 0.02 0.01 2921.07 Jan-Mar 17 809.60 (26.74) 245.88 311.66 211.89 39.81 0.36 30.05 (0.99) 30.05 2152.68 (71.10) 588.59 (19.44) 111.97 120.42 68.52 101.84 60.59 63.67 56.03 26.90 95.94 108.14 66.01 13.26 58.11 99.47 149.48 8.40 10.37 19.93 65.02 53.42 14.45 10.49 54.90 0.02 27.11 1.90 53.86 21.10 2.68 0.43 19.66 35.33 (1.17) 8.93 15.53 8.58 1.95 0.04 0.11 0.15 0.04 0.00 3027.74 April-June 17 928.64 (25.98) 286.35 357.28 236.30 48.31 0.40 34.71 (0.97) 34.71 2577.20 (72.09) 700.33 (19.59) 130.27 123.91 77.64 112.18 61.86 56.27 85.33 30.41 129.11 147.42 77.92 11.53 61.19 86.02 225.82 12.02 10.37 16.71 78.36 57.31 23.11 14.05 75.73 0.01 38.17 2.38 65.20 26.96 3.14 1.35 35.12 34.31 (0.96) 8.55 12.41 10.56 2.58 0.02 0.15 0.03 0.00 0.01 3574.86
12. Global Comparison Billion USD The paper title “Migration and Graph-8:Top 10 Remittance Earning Countries Development Brief of World Bank 80 69 64 April, 2016”, finds that, 60 Bangladesh attained the 8th 40 29 25 21 20 19 position in 2015 among the 15 13 20 10 7 world‟s top ten remittance earner 0 countries and 3rd in South Asian region. Where India is the world‟s top most remittance earner and China attained the 2nd position. Though Bangladesh is in 6th position among world‟s top 10 manpower exporter countries, its remittance earning is 6.8 percent of the country‟s GDP. Table-7 shows the Top 10 Remittance Earning Countries based on the amount of remittance and As Percentage Share of GDP in 2015. Table-7: Top 10 Remittance Earning Countries in 2015 Top 10 remittance earning countries Amount of remittance Country (Billion USD) India Chine Philippines Mexico Nigeria Egypt Pakistan Bangladesh Vietnam Indonesia 69 64 29 25 21 20 19 15 13 10 Top 10 countries ( As Percentage Share of GDP)** Percentage Share of GDP Country Tajikistan Kirgiz Republic Nepal Tonga Moldova Liberia Haiti Gambia Comoros Armenia Source: Migration and Development Brief, World Bank, April, 2016. **Top 10 Countries according to percentage share of GDP (%) in 2014. 11 36.6 30.3 29.4 27.1 26.2 24.4 22.7 22.4 19.4 19.1
13. Recent Policy Measures Towards Migrant Workers Even though Bangladesh is in 6th position among world ‟s top 10 manpower exporter countries, the share of skilled migrants is still insignificant. Therefore, the country needs to give more attention with policy measures. Towards skilled migrants in the early 2010s, Bangladesh government and Bangladesh Bank have taken various regulatory and institutional measures to boost up remittances through formal channel, which contributed to boost up the remittances. The Ministry of Expatriates‟ Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEW&OE) has started various projects under the ADP of FY 2016-17. Some recent policy measures are given below. Policy Approved by the government With a view to protect the rights of all migrant workers and their families, the cabinet has approved a more detailed and comprehensive "Expatriates‟ Welfare and Overseas Employment Policy 2016" on 11 January 2016 in line with the Overseas Employment and Migration Act 2013 and the United Nations‟ international convention. The new policy replaces the „Overseas Employment Policy 2006‟.  This policy includes a provision for setting up a „National Migration Forum‟ to supervise the policy implementation.  The policy also proposed on formation of a national steering committee comprising ministers and secretaries of the concerned ministries to deal with issues relating to overseas employments.  The main objective of the policy is to ensure safety and security of the migrant workers, who are contributing significantly to the country‟s economic development, and their families.  The policy recommends for providing proper training to migrant workers and taking up labor migration diplomacy across the globe.  The policy also recommends to fix up the possible reasonable costs for migration in a transparent way by the Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited. 12
14.  One of the major objectives of this policy is to simplify the migration process for the female workers who are seeking overseas jobs.  The policy also recommends to increase the number of female officials in Bangladesh missions abroad, particularly in those countries where an increased number of Bangladeshi women are working.  Apart from G to G facilities with low cost migration, government has also given strong emphasis on private sector labor migration process recently. Projects under the ADP  Renovation and Modernization of Bangladesh Institute of Marine Technology (January 2014 to June 2018);  Establishment of Bangladesh-IDB Friendship Technical Teachers Training Institute (July 2015 to June 2019);  Establishment of Technical Training Center at Upazilla level (July 2015 to June 2019);  Enhancement of the Vocational Training Program of TTC, Rajshahi under KOICA‟s Deep Program (July 2015 to December 2018);  Enhancement of the Vocational Training Program of TTC, Faridpur under KOICA‟s Deep Program (July 2015 to December 2018).  Capacity Development Program of TTC, Rajshahi (January 2016 to December 2019). Measures taken by the Bangladesh Bank  Banks are allowed to establish drawing arrangements with the exchange houses all over the world for collecting remittances;  For better control on the remittance collection, the local banks are encouraged to establish their exchange houses/branch offices abroad and under this arrangement some banks have already established their offices abroad to collect remittances by their own. 13
15.  For the purpose of quick delivery of remittances to beneficiaries through bank-to-bank clearing systems, Bangladesh Electronic Funds Transfer Network (BEFTN) was established from 28 February 2011 with other funds transfer activities;  For enhancing distribution network, accelerating and simplifying the delivery process of inward remittances, some Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) are allowed to perform the job of remittance distribution now;  Banks (Bank Asia Ltd., BRAC Bank Ltd., Dhaka Bank Ltd., Trust Bank Ltd., Mercantile Bank Ltd., Citibank N.A and Sonali Bank Ltd.) are now allowed to distribute remittance using the countrywide outlets of different mobile operators like Grameen Phone, Banglalink & Robi.  To increase the competition among the money transmitters, commercial banks are instructed to amend the contracts with some Multinational Money Remitters/ Exchange Houses through their mutual understanding to remove “Pay Cash Exclusivity Clause” or any other such clause that can a ceiling on the competition in the market among the related parties; Bangladesh Bank has simplified the approval policy of drawing arrangements between foreign exchange houses and domestic banks.  Recently Bangladesh Bank has approved a policy for Non-Resident Bangladeshi (NRBs) working abroad. In order to enhance housing finance facility, NRBs may avail housing finance facility at a maximum debt equity ratio of 75:25 instead of existing debt equity ratio of 50:50.  To enhance the quality of remittance service for NRBs, Bangladesh Bank has instructed all AD banks to establish Remittance Help Desk in their branch offices. 14
16. Annexure-1 15