Peace Brings More Remittances To Bangladesh

January 5, 2009 3:39 p.m. EST

Dhaka, Bangladesh (AHN) - Bangladeshis received over $4.5 billion USD in remittances in the first half of the current fiscal quarter, up a dramatic 31.15% from the last quarter. According to officials in Dhaka, the inflow of remittances has improved gradually with the peaceful political transition in the country.

"We are hopeful about receiving $10 billion as inward remittance by the end of this fiscal," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country's central bank, told AHN in Dhaka on Monday.

Bangladesh received $4.512 billion during the July-December period of the fiscal 2008-09 against $3.44 billion of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank statistics.

The remittance from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad was estimated at $765.79 million in December last, which was $4.41 million higher than that of the previous month, the BB's data showed.

The country's foreign exchange reserve stood at $5.826 billion Monday due to robust growth of remittance, they added.

The central bank earlier took a series of measures to encourage the expatriate Bangladeshis to send home their hard-earned money through the formal banking channel instead of 'hundi' and boost the country's foreign exchange reserve.

"We're continuously pursuing the commercial banks for taking necessary measures to boost the flow of inward remittance," another BB official told AHN in Dhaka.

He also said the central bank has already asked the banks to expedite delivery of remittances to the beneficiaries at the quickest possible time to encourage the expatriates to use the banking channel for overseas fund transfer.

Currently, some private commercial banks (PCBs) along with the state-owned commercial banks (SCBs) are desperately trying to increase the flow of inward remittances from the Middle East, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore and Italy.

"We are determined to increase the inflow of remittances to meet our internal requirement of foreign exchange," a senior official of a private commercial bank said, that there was no alternative to meet the import payments without boosting inward remittances.