Monday 27 August 2007

India: Remittance market opens new avenues

Business & Economy News Bureau

Just like the negative thinking behind population boom, which was once considered a doom for India and its growth, faced a face down with the rise of BPO industry. So is the fact that skilled labourers are going abroad and settling there. It not only helps in earning foreign exchange (preliminary figures in the RBI annual report for the year ended June 2006 show that non resident Indian deposits were the third largest contributor to the total capital flows in 2005-06), it also helped in making India the country which receives the largest remittance in the world. According to World Bank numbers, India gets over 10 percent of the USD230 billion global remittance market.[Read more]

Sunday 26 August 2007

Jamaica National (JN) remittance fees waived…all JN Money transfers to Jamaica at no cost

All JN Money transfers to Jamaica at no cost

KINGSTON, Jamaica - All fees charged for sending remittances to Jamaica via JN Money Transfer have been waived for the next four days. This waiver is in effect for all remittances sent from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, St. Vincent and Cayman, and expires on Saturday, August 25, 2007.

The announcement was made Monday, August 20 by Emile Spence, General Manager of JN Money Services (JNMS), a subsidiary of the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS).“We recognize that persons may wish to provide financial help for their family and loved ones in Jamaica to get back on track, and we decided to assist them in doing so by waiving the transfer fees,” he stated. [Read more]

Friday 24 August 2007

Philippines: Housing loan applications now available at NAIA for OFWs

By Tarra QuismundoInquirerLast updated 08:49pm (Mla time) 08/24/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- For the benefit of migrant workers, Manila's airports are going POP.


The Pag-Ibig Overseas Program (POP), a project that seeks to extend the fund's housing loan program to migrant workers, may now be accessed through counters at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminals 1 and 2.


The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) has partnered with Pag-Ibig Fund (Home Development Mutual Fund) to make POP services available to Overseas Filipino Workers right at the airport. [Read more]

Philippines: Housing loan applications now available at NAIA for OFWs

By Tarra QuismundoInquirerLast updated 08:49pm (Mla time) 08/24/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- For the benefit of migrant workers, Manila's airports are going POP.

The Pag-Ibig Overseas Program (POP), a project that seeks to extend the fund's housing loan program to migrant workers, may now be accessed through counters at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminals 1 and 2.

The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) has partnered with Pag-Ibig Fund (Home Development Mutual Fund) to make POP services available to Overseas Filipino Workers right at the airport. [Read more]

Tuesday 21 August 2007

Obama Supports Family Travel and Remittances to Cuba

August 21, 2007
Beth Reinhard -- The Miami Herald

MIAMI - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is calling for "unrestricted rights" for Cuban Americans to visit and send money to family in Cuba, just days before his first pilgrimage to Little Havana as a presidential candidate.

President Bush clamped down on family travel and remittances to Cuba in an effort to squeeze dictator Fidel Castro. The policy has become a flash point in the Cuban-American community, which traditionally leans toward the GOP. [Read more]

Migrant Cash Is World Economic Giant

By WILLIAM J. KOLE (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated PressAugust 18, 2007 11:13 PM EDT

TIRANA, Albania - Josif Poro pats his new sofa, points with pride to his carpets and runs a wrinkled hand over a gleaming white refrigerator. He and his wife barely scrape by on their $220 monthly pension. They'd have to do without many of the items in their cramped apartment if their son, a factory worker in Greece, didn't faithfully send home part of his earnings.
"We call him our golden boy," said Poro, 83, a retired textile mill worker.
Around the world, millions of immigrants are sending billions of dollars back home.

One sweaty wad of bills or $200 Western Union moneygram at a time, they form what could be called Immigration, Inc. - one of the biggest businesses on the planet. [Read more]

Remittances, Free Trade and Cross-Border Banking Examined in Dallas Fed Report

DALLAS, Aug 20, 2007 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Remittances to Mexico, free trade and cross-border banking are the focus of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' latest issue of Southwest Economy.
Find the July/August issue online at http://www.dallasfed.org/.

Lower money-transfer costs and better measurement techniques likely explain the post-2000 growth in remittances from the United States to Mexico, according to Dallas Fed assistant economists Jesus Canas and Roberto Coronado and senior economist and policy adviser Pia Orrenius.
In "Explaining the Increase in Remittances to Mexico," the authors assert that the growth in the Mexican migrant population and their income alone can't account for the increase in remittances. [Read more]

U.S. remittances to Mexico on the rise

U.S. remittances to Mexico grew rapidly in a five-year period from 2000 to 2005 because the Mexican migrant population is embracing traditional banking channels, according to a new report by the Dallas Federal Reserve.

"Real remittances grew 170 percent from 2000 to 2005, but in the U.S., the Mexican-born population grew only 20 percent," the Fed said in its latest issue of Southwest Economy.

The issue focuses on remittances to Mexico, free trade and cross-border banking.

Lower money-transfer costs and better measurement techniques likely explain the post-2000 growth in remittances, according to Dallas Fed assistant economists Jesus Canas and Roberto Coronado and senior economist and policy adviser Pia Orrenius. [Read more]

The price of remittances

RODEL RODIS, Philippine News08/15/2007 04:43 PM

Perhaps the major accomplishment of the current Philippine government is the impressive improvement of the economy which has seen the peso increase in value from 54 to 1 under the previous government to the current 45 pesos to 1 dollar, requiring the government to expend less of its resources to pay off its foreign debt, and leaving more money for infrastructure improvements.By all accounts, this improvement in the economy is owed chiefly to the $15-B in remittances that overseas Filipino workers (OFW) annually send back to the Philippines.

But what is the price that OFWs have to pay for these Philippine economy-saving remittances? Two reports about the Philippines, which appeared this past week in the mainstream media, provide us with the answer.
[Read more]

Dallas Fed Explores Remittances to Mexico, Cross-Border Banking

Remittances to Mexico, free trade and cross-border banking are the focus of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas'latest issue of Southwest Economy (PDF). According to the Fed, "over the last decade or so, inflation-adjusted remittances [to Mexico] have grown at an average annual rate of 15.6 percent. Since 2000, the rate has risen to 20.4 percent."

Lower money-transfer costs and better measurement techniques likely explain the post-2000 growth in remittances from the United States to Mexico, according to Dallas Fed assistant economists Jesus Canas and Roberto Coronado and senior economist and policy adviser Pia Orrenius.
In "Explaining the Increase in Remittances to Mexico," the authors assert that the growth in the Mexican migrant population and their income alone can't account for the increase in remittances. [Read more]

Dhaka to sign deal with Doha to safeguard workers’ rights

Raheed Ejaz
Dhaka is set to sign an additional deal with Doha for protecting the rights of the Bangladeshis working in the gulf country. The government has taken the initiative as the existing deal does not fully ensure the rights of Bangladeshi workers in Qatar and the other South Asian countries, including India and Pakistan, have already signed such agreements, officials in the ministry of foreign affairs and expatriate and overseas employment said.

‘Also, our recent negative experience in some of the Middle Eastern countries, especially Kuwait’s decision to deport illegal workers, has made it necessary to sign such deal,’ said an official of the expatriate welfare and overseas ministry. ‘We have finalised the draft of the agreement and hope to sign it very shortly,’ Md Abdul Matin Chowdhury, acting secretary of the expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry told New Age on Thursday. He said that the draft of the deal, styled ‘Additional Protocol to the Agreement between Qatar and Bangladesh on the Regulation of the Employment of Bangladesh Citizens’, was finalised in an inter-ministerial meeting headed by him on Monday.

The secretary said that the draft was sent to the law ministry for vetting and afterwards it would be placed before the cabinet for approval. Two clauses were incorporated in the protocol. One states that before any deportation, Bangladeshi workers should be compensated following the labour laws of the Gulf state that safeguards all basic rights of workers. ‘To avoid such deportation, initiative should be taken so that the workers could be provided with job there,’ the other clause said. The initial agreementl was signed between the two countries in 1998. An official of the ministry said that the Qatar authorities recently told Bangladesh to revise it like India and Pakistan if it required doing so. ‘Later, Qater sent the copies of the deals it signed with India and Pakistan to us. After going through those deals, we have decided to follow the Pakistani deal as there are similarities between our situations,’ the official added.

At present some 80,000 Bangladeshis are working in Qatar and the country fetched $ 233.17 million as remittance in 2006-07 fiscal from the Gulf state. Earlier this year the Kuwaiti authorities decided to deport illegal migrants staying in the Gulf country by September. According to official estimate, some 30,000 undocumented Bangladeshis are staying in the Gulf state.

Source

Sunday 19 August 2007

Banks charge too much for overseas money transfers

By Honesto General
Inquirer
Last updated 03:53am (Mla time) 08/15/2007

Modern-day banking started on the sidewalks of medieval Milan, Italy. Money was actually traded from benches, hence “banco,” or bank. At that time, bankers were considered only a head above murderers, robbers and thieves.

Today, bankers have become respectable. But there are pockets of sheer greed.

When I was in Los Angeles recently, I had to send $500 to my son in Makati City. Philippine National Bank has a subsidiary that handles money transfers. I was charged a fee of three percent, or $15. [Read more]

RP expected to benefit from 'reverse migration'

y Doris DumlaoInquirer
Last updated 03:49pm (Mla time) 08/19/2007

THE CHIEF economist of Deutsche Bank has cited the Philippines' potential to benefit from the same phenomenon of reverse migration that bailed Ireland out of the poverty trap three decades ago.
In a briefing last week, visiting Deutsche Bank chief economist Norbert Walter said he was upbeat on the Philippines and its ability to catch up with Asia's fast-growing economies.

"In our analysis, the rating has improved for this very country. I've never seen such good economic and political weather in the Philippines," he said.
[Read more]

Philippines: 17 death sentences on OFWs commuted

But 2 executions final and executory
By Veronica UyINQUIRER.netLast updated 06:39pm (Mla time) 08/17/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Seventeen of 49 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) facing the death penalty have been spared from the sentence.
But the sentence on two of the OFWs is final and executory.

But Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Esteban Conejos, whose office has been working on the cases of these OFWs since January last year, said the bad news is not so bad because the child of the two OFWs’ murder victim has still not reached the age of majority, by which time she may be able to forgive the convicts and spare their lives.
[Read more]

Philippines: DOLE to teach OFWs how to invest

By Jerome Aning
InquirerLast updated 09:23pm (Mla time) 08/18/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- The Department of Labor and Employment said there was a need to teach returning overseas Filipino workers and families of OFWs still abroad how to spend or invest their dollar earnings.

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said the National Reintegration Center for OFWs, a newly-created DOLE agency, would be going around the provinces to teach OFWs and their families how they can engage in livelihood and small- and medium-enterprises using their earnings. [Read more]

Saturday 18 August 2007

GCMT Conference 29–30 october 2007 Dorchester Hotel, London

IAMTN's 3rd Annual Global Consumer Money Transfers Conference is the leading industry conference addressing the new regulatory, business, structural and technological changes transforming the money transfers market.
This conference is a must for industry CEOs, COO's, CFO's and other professionals responsible for market regulation, legal and compliance, business development, IT solutions and also for technology providers and investment bankers. The conference provides a unique networking opportunity in the luxurious environment of the Dorchester Hotel, located in the heart of London's West End.

The conference will address the following issues:

- Major trends in money transfer markets
- Regional developments in money transfers
- Remittances formal vs informal
- New technologies
- Money transfers startups
- Successful business models
- Compliance for international money transfer companies
- Remittances as an investment opportunity
- Global Regulatory Issues

[Read more]

EVENT: International Conference: Cooperation and Development

Through the Valencian University Board for International Relations and Cooperation (CUVRIC), and the Valencian Regional Government (Generalitat Valenciana), through its Ministry for Cooperation and Participation, the five Valencian state universities (Universitat de València, Universitat Jaume I de Castellón, Universitat Politècnica de València, Universitat d’Alacant, and Universitat Miguel Hernández de Elche), would like to announce that they are organising the II International Conference on Cooperation for Development: Migration and Co-development.

The Conference will be held in Alicante, from 15th to 17th November 2007, as part of the Region of Valencia’s annual Solidària awareness-raising programme.

Objectives

The main aim of this Conference is to reflect on the situation, factors, project methodology and results related to Migration and Co-development. Equally, it is hoped that conclusions will be reached which may, in the near future, make it possible for the different social agents involved in cooperation to establish specific lines of action, particularly those related to the public or non-profit-making sectors, which may contribute towards creating specific policies or projects.

The aims of the Conference are divided into two areas:
a) To carry out a scientific analysis in order to obtain conclusions to improve cooperation set up and financed by public and private funds.
b)To carry out a social awareness campaign on the (current and necessary) impact of international cooperation on the promotion of co-development.
[Read more]

Philippines: Losing the workforce

The Philippine StarWhile the nation suffers from an acute lack of schoolteachers and deteriorating English proficiency, Thai students are learning English – from thousands of Filipino teachers.

A recent report said about 3,000 Filipinos are currently teaching in Thailand, receiving salaries ranging from the equivalent of P17,000 to P43,000 a month. That’s higher than the basic monthly pay of government doctors in this country - enough incentive for Filipinos to move to a neighboring country that was once at the same development stage as the Philippines, but which has since inched ahead. [Read more]

Friday 17 August 2007

GHANA: GCB launches MoneyGram

Business/Finance of Thursday, August 16, 2007

Ms. Nikki Spottiswoode, Regional Director Africa, MoneyGram, on Wednesday said the collaboration in establishing GCB Moneygram was an obvious choice since the bank has the largest branch network across Ghana and it would make it convenient for customers to have access to the service. She said MoneyGram had firmly established itself as one of the leading money transfer services in Ghana for the past six years and the demand for the service had encouraged them to expand their agent network to cover more locations in the country.

"We share similar values and a commitment to quality customer service and extremely competitive fees," she said.Ms. Spottiswoode stated that the MoneyGram service allowed customers to safely send money around the world in as little as ten minutes, subject to agent availability and hours of operations. (Read more]

INDIA: New Investment & Remittance Schemes Launched for NRIs in Gulf

s per an agreement between Fidelity International and ICICI Bank, NRIs in the Gulf will have access to Fidelity’s complete range of offshore investment products and services through one of India’s leading banks.
US based Fidelity is an established name in international investment managing assets worth USD 280.7 billion. Fidelity offers investment products to individuals and institutional investors in major markets of the world, and has been functioning in the Middle East for the last 5 years. FIL has a team of 800 professionals covering 95% of the world’s stock markets and have an array of products to suit every requirement. [Read more]

Thursday 16 August 2007

EVENT: AFRICAN DIASPORA IN EUROPE REGIONAL CONSULTATIVE CONFERENCE

DATE: September 11-12, 2007
More information:

The Africa Union Summit of January 2006 held in Khartoum, Sudan, endorsed South Africa as the host of the African Diaspora Summit to be held during the first quarter of 2008. This includes the preceding Ministerial Conference, Senior Officials Meeting, a National Consultative Conference and an AU Consultative Conference. Pursuant to this decision, Paris, United Kingdom, Latin America, North America and the Caribbean have been designated as the nodal points that would host Regional Consultative Conferences in preparation for the aforesaid Summit. Following extensive discussions, it was decided that the Africa – African Diaspora in Europe Consultative Conference will be held in Paris on 11 – 12 September 2007.

A meeting of the Swedish Africa Diaspora, under the auspices of the South African embassy in Stockholm, was held in Stockholm on Friday, August 3. This site is being sponsored by the coordinating committee of the Swedish African Diaspora. [Read more]

AFRICAN DIASPORA IN EUROPE REGIONAL CONSULTATIVE CONFERENCE

IDENTIFICATION OF COMMISSIONS AND THEMES FOR THE AFRICA UNION - AFRICAN DIASPORA IN EUROPE REGIONAL CONSULTATIVE CONFERENCE

1. The Themes and Commissions for the RCC were discussed at the Preparatory Workshop of 25 June 2007. At the workshop the participants made suggestions for changes and amendments to these Themes and Commissions, and also elaborated on some of the important aspects related to the Commissions. The Secretariat had subsequently reviewed the outcomes of the discussions as well as other inputs received and has compiled the following revised document for the RCC.

2. It is requested that the Steering Committee of 4 July 2007 review the final draft with a view to its adoption such that background information, speakers, and marketing materials and other such details may be accomplished in good time in preparation for the RCC, confirmed to take place on 11 and 12 September 2007.

3. All the main elements of the draft submitted to the Workshop have been retained and are included in either one of the two Conference Plenary sessions or in one of the six Commissions. [Read more]

GHANA: Rural Banks declare ¢88.71bn profit

RURAL BANKS made a fabulous contribution to the economy last year by way of a declaration of a cumulative profit before tax of ¢88.71 billion.Mr. Godfried Odame Asare, Chief Executive Officer of Atwima Kwanwoma Rural bank attributed this to a marked improvement in all key financial indicators from the financial performance of all 124 rural banks in 2006.

He said with a collaboration with eight financial institutions 95 rural banks are un undertaking foreign funds transfer under which remittances grew by 76% from ¢126 billion in 2005 to ¢222 billion in 2006.


Referring to ARB Apex Bank data, Mr. Odame Asare, said rural banks have impacted positively on the economy having mobilized ¢2,264.61 billion in deposits from 2,493 customers in 2006.He said the figure represented 7.6% of the total deposits in the entire banking sector. He as well pointed to a total investment of ¢846.25 billion in treasury bills in the same year.

CEO Odame Asare said loans granted out of mobilized funds amounted to ¢1,151.00 billion as at December 2006. He said in spite of problems rural banks have increased to 124 with a total of 560 offices through the country.Following the positive impact the banker that efforts suggested at development must be focused in rural areas where 70% of the Ghanaian population lives to make the difference. [Read more]

All banks to connect to E-ZWICH

Accra, Aug. 15, GNA - The Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on Wednesday asked all banks to link their ATMs and Point of Sale (POS) device to the National Switch, the E-ZWICH by March 31, 2008.

The E-ZWICH, a brand name for the National Switch, under the new Universal Electronic Payments (UEPS) technology is to ensure that all commercial banks, rural banks and savings and loans institutions implemented a common payment platform and biometric Smartcard. Speaking at the launch of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) MoneyGram, Dr Bawumia said banks with existing switches were expected to upgrade them to make them compatible with the National Switch by July 1, 2008.The GCB MoneyGram service would be operated through all its 133 branches. [Read more]

INDIA: CBoP launches new remittance scheme for UAE clients

New Delhi, Aug. 15 (PTI): New generation private sector lender Centurion bank of Punjab (CBoP) on Tuesday launched a remittance option scheme 'SmartRemit - Gulf' for its non- resident Indian (NRI) clients in the UAE.
For easy and fast remittances service, the bank has entered into remittance agreement with exchange houses like UAE Exchange Centre and Alukkas Exchange, CBoP said in a release.

As per the agreement, NRI clients of the bank would be able to remit funds from any of the branches of these exchange houses which would be transferred to their accounts in CBoP across India within a day, it added.
"Our bank is also in discussion with other exchange houses to extend SmartRemit - Gulf to other countries such as Sultanate of Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia," CBoP Business Director Harpreet Singh said. [Source]

Investing in the Philippines: A negative experience for OFWS

By LOUI GALICIAABS-CBN Europe News BureauOverseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Netherlands are discouraged from investing in the Philippines because of the bad experiences suffered by some OFWs here, reported ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau.

To help overcome the negative attitudes of these Filipinos towards doing business in their home country, the Philippine Embassy hosted an informal forum in The Hague, presided by five representatives of the Philippine Consortium on Migration and Development or PhilComDev.

Estrella Dizon-Anonuevo of Atikha, Jonas George Soriano and Salvador Umengan of Ploughshares Inc., Lurina Gargarita of Philippine Social Enterprise Network and Julyn Ambito of IDEALS represented PhilComDev, which is a coalition of more than thirty non-profit organizations in the Philippines formed to lure remittances for social-enterprise initiatives.
[Read more]

Wednesday 15 August 2007

OFW remittances up 18% in 1st half

Thomson FinancialLast updated 02:08am (Mla time) 08/16/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- Foreign exchange remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) grew 18.1 percent to $7.0 billion in the first half of the year from $5.9 billion in the same period last year, central bank data showed Wednesday.

In June, OFW remittances edged up 0.9 percent to $1.11 billion from $1.10 billion a year earlier, but were down 9.8 percent from $1.2 billion in May.
[Read more]

Tuesday 14 August 2007

Philippines To Probe Continued Appreciation Of Peso

August 14, 2007 7:49 a.m. EST
Preciosa Dumlao - AHN Writer

Manila, Philippines (AHN) - Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. on Tuesday called for a Senate inquiry into the circumstances behind the continuing appreciation of the peso against the U.S. dollars and its impact on the lives of families of overseas Filipino workers.

Since a strong peso means less value for the dollar remittances of the OFWs, Pimentel said the government should institute measures to mitigate its negative effects on the OFWs and their families.
From more than P52 to the dollar, at the start of 2007, the exchange rate now ranges from P45.43 to P45.75 to the dollar. [Read more]

Export earnings and Worker remittances grow, imports decline, inflation up in Sri Lanka

Tuesday, August 14, 2007, 14:39 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Aug 14, Colombo: Sri Lanka Central Bank Economic Research Department issuing August Monetary Policy Review stated that export earnings grew by 12.9 per cent during the first half of 2007 underpinned by the highest monthly value in 2007, US dollars 675 million in June.

Meanwhile, imports declined by 11.5 per cent in June due to the decline in imports of petroleum, fertilizer, textile material, and other consumer goods resulting a relatively lower import growth of 3.9 per cent for the first half of the year.

The negative growth in imports against a background of rising exports caused to improve the trade balance further by end June 2007.
[Read more]

Monday 13 August 2007

SEMINAR: Legal, rapid and reasonably priced? A survey of remittance services in Norway

Launch of Report by Jørgen Carling, Marta Bivand Erdal, Cindy Horst and Hilde Wallacher PRIO, Hausmanns gate 7, Oslo, Friday 24 August 2007, 13:00-14:00
Selected findings will be presented by the authors. The report will be delivered to Minister of International Development Erik Solheim, who will comment on it in relation to Norwegian policy. After the end of the official programme at 14:00, there will be an opportunity to stay on for informal conversations or questions.

Please register for the seminar by emailing your name and affiliation/organization to seminar@prio.no within 21 August 2007.
More about the report:What opportunities do immigrants in Norway have for sending money to their countries of origin? The report examines the services on offer in the Norwegian market. Focusing on transfers to twelve specific countries, the report compares the availability of services, their price and quality. The countries covered are Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chile, Iraq, Kenya, Lithuania, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Somalia and Vietnam. The services examined include regular bank transfers, money transfer services, web-based transfers and so-called hawala services. [Read more]

An appeal to all to Non- Resident Bangladeshis

Wednesday August 08 2007 23:52:57 PM BDT
Ripan Kumar Biswas, USA


As per the request of the Prime minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh and having great feelings for the country, all non-resident Indians across the world came forward to help the tsunami victims’ people that killed over 280,000 people in towns and villages along the coasts of the Indian Ocean on or after December 26, 2004.Over 3 million survivors had their livelihoods destroyed.

India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Somalia were affected.Although Bangladesh survived the affects of the tsunami on December 26 because of the natural barrier of its continental shelf stretching 200 km into the Bay of Bengal, but the present on going floods started since mid-July across Bangladesh is not less natural disaster that already killed at least l64 people (till August 7, 2007) as millions marooned or homeless remained in abject misery for dearth of bare necessities and outbreaks of diseases. [Read more]

Philippine banks doing well in Europe

ugust 12, 2007 Updated 22:03:19 (Mla time) Doris Dumlao Inquirer
ROME – From the blue-collar workers shuffling multiple household jobs in Italy to the well-heeled medical professionals in the UK, an increasing Filipino diaspora is settling in Europe. And this makes the pastures in the old world greener for Philippine banks too.

Coming from a developing country where the cost of funds is very high, Philippine banks flock to cities where large Filipino communities are. Since it is especially costly to establish a physical presence in Europe than in most other continents, these banks seek their natural niche.

"It's like you're running after them," Isabelita Manalastas-Watanabe, Philippine National Bank first SVP and head of operations in Europe, Israel & African continent, said in an interview with Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net. [Read more]

Donations come under $1 lakh remittance cap

BS Reporter / Mumbai August 13, 2007
Remittances towards gifts and donations have been brought under the ambit of remittance scheme of individuals up to $1,00,000.

The Reserve Bank of India has clarified transactions which could be undertaken through this scheme in a notification to the bankers. This is an extension of the earlier scheme in February 2004, which allowed $25,000 as remittance through individuals.

Now, there is no separate limit for making remittance for gifts and donations, even for smaller denominations.

The remittance scheme can be used for purchase of objects of art or invest in units of mutual funds, venture funds, unrated debt securities and promissory notes. However, the investment in such securities should be done through bank accounts opened abroad sunder the scheme. [Read more]

Indians can deposit up to Rs41 lakh in overseas banks

Under the Liberalized Remittance Scheme, Indians can deposit up to Rs41lakh in foreign banks without RBI approval, by just quoting their PAN number
PTI

Mumbai: As part of efforts to flush out excess foreign capital, Reserve Bank has allowed resident Indians to open accounts in banks outside the country and transfer up to $100,000 (Rs 41 lakh) a year in them without its approval.

Individuals can now open, maintain and hold foreign currency accounts with banks outside India, the Reserve Bank said, while clarifying the provisions of the Liberalizsed Remittance Scheme (LRS).

The RBI clarification comes on the heels of the union government tightening External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) to restrict inflow of foreign capital to prevent appreciation of the Indian currency.

RBI and the Centre have been encouraging people and corporates to invest overseas to tide over the problems created by excessive inflow of foreign capital. [Read more]

Asia's labor force to grow 200M by 2015: ILO

Afp, GenevaAsia's economies face the challenge of finding jobs for an extra 200 million workers between now and 2015, according to a new International Labour Organisation (ILO) report out Monday.
It said the region will have its work cut out to improve the quality of jobs on offer and ensure the benefits of Asia's future economic growth are distributed more evenly as the labour force, currently 1.8 billion, increases.
"One thing is clear: doing business as usual is not sustainable over the long term," said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. "Asia is experiencing unprecedented growth and development.

"At the same time, vulnerabilities arising from environmental pressures, economic insecurity, shortcomings in governance and unequal income distribution pose a threat to the region's future development."

"Visions for Asia's Decent Work Decade: Sustainable Growth and Jobs to 2015", has been presented to an ILO Asian Employment Forum in Beijing running from Monday to Wednesday. [Read more]

Microsoft’s ‘Tulay’ program links more OFWs to their families in RP

y EDISON D. ONGNow they can communicate!
One of the most dramatic real life story chronicled by proponents of the Microsoft Philippines’ Tulay program is that of a Filipina mother currently employed as a household help in Hong Kong and the deaf mute son whom she left behind in the Philippines.
As a consequence of their separation, their communication ceased. Obviously, the telephone and cellular phone technology has no place in their lives. Yes, there is SMS or texting that they can do. Or even write letters and postcards. Yet, they yearn to "speak."

The solution(s)?
Internet technology. Web camera technology. Broadband communications technology.

For a growing number of overseas Filipino workers like this mother, the personal computer is no longer a contraption. It is a communications equipment that serves as a bridge. [Read more]

Sunday 12 August 2007

Illegal Immigration Drops Sharply Along Border

ECATE, Mexico (AP) — Mexican shelters, usually the last stop for northbound migrants, are filling with southbound deportees. Fewer migrants are crossing in the wind-swept deserts along an increasingly fortified border. Far to the north, fields are empty at harvest time as workplace raids become more common.

Mexicans are increasingly giving up on the American dream and staying home, and the federal crackdown on undocumented workers announced Friday should discourage even potential migrants from taking the risks as the United States purges itself of its illegal population.U.S. border agents detained 55,545 illegal migrants jumping over border walls, walking through the desert and swimming across the Rio Grande River between October and June. That’s down 38 percent for the entire border compared to the same period a year before. [Read more]

Fewer migrants send cash home

Anti-immigrant sentiment in U.S. has many insecure about future, survey finds
Sunday, August 12, 2007 3:51 AM
By Suzanne Gamboa
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- One in three Mexican migrants living in states where Latino migration is relatively new stopped sending money home this year. Anti-immigrant sentiment may be to blame, the Inter-American Development Bank says.

In states considered "new destination" states for Latinos, such as Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, only 56 percent of Mexican migrants said they sent money home, compared with 80 percent the previous year. Migrants in these states previously had the highest remittance rate.
By contrast, the rate of remittance for the first six months of this year was 66 percent -- down from 68 percent -- in states where Latino immigrants have traditionally lived, such as Texas, California and New Mexico. An estimated 10.4 million adult Mexican immigrants are living in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau. [Read more]

Saturday 11 August 2007

The Remittance Man

For a change let me write about the "Remittance Man" triggered by the book of the same title.

Nowadays we associate Remittances as the money sent home by migrants - the modern heroes - to their families back home. The new book I just read "The Remittance Man" by Michael Worsnip informed me that the word "remittance man" has been widely used in the 19th century referring an exile living on money sent from home. Remittance Man, a term once widely used, especially in the West before WWI, for an immigrant living in Canada on funds remitted by his family in England, usually to ensure that he would not return home and become a source of embarrassment.

BP
EAN : 9781869141158300 pages
Publisher : University of KwaZulu-Natal Press
Country of publication: South Africa
Author: Michael Worsnip

It is a must read book and I encourage everyone to get a copy and read it.

However time has changed. The modern "Remittance Man" is the one sending money home. He breaks his back to earn a living to support his loved ones and more. No they will not understand the Remittance Man.

More search on the internet, I found two following poems about "remittance man":


The Remittance Man
By Jimmy Buffett

Sinner on the mainland
He's a sinner on the sea
He looks for absolution
Not accountability
How many destinations
Oh God he's seen them all
He collects his precious pittance
Never a port of call

Remittance Man
Blacksheep of the family clan
Broke too many rules along the way
Remittance Man
So far away from home
No they'll never understand
The Remittance Man

A man of empty pockets
From jingling his change
The idleness and grieving
For all that he retains
By the harbour lights of Sydney
Or the Bora Bora moon
He recites his sad confession
To the seagulls and the loons

Remittance Man
Blacksheep of the family clan
Broke too many rules along the way
Remittance Man
So far away from home
No they'll never understand
The Remittance Man
Well you can claim that you were born a prince
But you're the only one you can convince
Survivor with no livelihood
That you could ever make it good
But still you dream of what you can pretend

An unexpected passenger
Boarded in MarseillesAn angel full of tenderness
She gave her heart away
She was but a gypsy
He was just a stray
They almost made a miracle but it slowly slipped away
So he follows the equator
With a wish to run aground
It's a very vicious circle
Goin' round and round and round
And he watches from the fantail
As the mainland disappears
Just like the Flying Dutchman
He's a prisoner of his fears

Remittance Man
Blacksheep of the family clan
Broke too many rules along the way
Remittance Man
So far away from home
No they'll never understand
No they'll never understand
No they'll never understand
The Remittance Man.




The Rhyme of the Remittance Man



There's a four-pronged buck
a-swinging
In the shadow of my cabin,
And it roamed the velvet valley till to-day;
But I tracked it by the river,
And I trailed it in the cover,
And I killed it on the mountain miles away.

Now I've had my lazy supper,
And the level sun is gleaming
On the water where the silver salmon play;
And I light my little corn-cob,
And I linger, softly dreaming,
In the twilight, of a land that's far away.

Far away, so faint and far,
Is flaming London, fevered Paris,
That I fancy I have gained another star;
Far away the din and hurry,Far away the sin and worry,
Far away — God knows they cannot be too far.

Gilded galley-slaves of Mammon —
How my purse-proud brothers taunt me!
I might have been as well-to-do as they
Had I clutched like them my chances,
Learned their wisdom, crushed my fancies,
Starved my soul and gone to business every day.

Well, the cherry bends with blossom
And the vivid grass is springing,
And the star-like lily nestles in the green;
And the frogs their joys are singing,
And my heart in tune is ringing,
And it doesn't matter what I might have been.

While above the scented pine-gloom,
Piling heights of golden glory,
The sun-god paints his canvas in the west,
I can couch me deep in clover,
I can listen to the story
Of the lazy, lapping water — it is best.

While the trout leaps in the river,
And the blue grouse thrills the cover,
And the frozen snow betrays the panther's track,
And the robin greets the dayspring
With the rapture of a lover,
I am happy, and I'll nevermore go back.

For I know I'd just be longing
For the little old log cabin,
With the morning-glory clinging to the door,
Till I loathed the city places,
Cursed the care on all the faces,
Turned my back on lazar London evermore.

So send me far from Lombard Street,
And write me down a failure;
Put a little in my purse and leave me free.
Say: "He turned from Fortune's offering
To follow up a pale lure,
He is one of us no longer — let him be.
"I am one of you no longer;
By the trails my feet have broken,
The dizzy peaks I've scaled, the camp-fire's glow;
By the lonely seas I've sailed in —
Yea, the final word is spoken,
I am signed and sealed to nature.
Be it so.
-- Robert W. Service

Bangladesh: BoP surplus reaches $1,027m in 11 months

Boosted by a surge in remittances, the balance of payments (BoP) surplus reached US$1,027 million in the first 11 months of the last fiscal (2006-07), despite a fall in foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign aid.
The overall balance was only $121 million surplus during the same period of FY '06.

BoP is the difference between the amount paid by a government to other countries and the amount it receives from them.

The trade imbalance, however, has increased around 20 percent to reach $3,304 million compared with the same period of the 2005-06 fiscal as imports surpassed exports.

Imports rose by 17.66 percent in 11 months compared with the same period of FY 2005-06.

Meanwhile, exports marked increase over the corresponding period of the 2005-06 fiscal year. The export growth in the July-May period in FY '07 marked almost 17 percent rise to reach $10,883 million against $9,308 million in FY 2005-06. [Read more]

Migration Closes Gender Gap

Friday, August 10, 2007

A new study from the World Bank:

Migration Closes Gender Gap, Brings Other Social, Health Gains

International migration not only reduces poverty in the poorer nations where most journeys begin, but can generate a range of generally positive social and health effects in the home countries, particularly among girls, and even including nonimmigrant families.

These are among the key conclusions of the new book International Migration, Economic Development, and Policy, co-edited by Caglar Ozden, Economist in the World Bank’s Development Research Group, and Maurice Schiff, the International Migration and Development Research Program’s Lead Economist .The book provides new documentation on the already reported positive impact of migrant remittances on families in 12 Latin and Caribbean home countries.

The book’s extensive data and research, which also includes rural Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Morocco in its selected case studies, shows how migration can lead to outcomes in developing home countries that:
* Close the gender gap and put more girls in school and lower their dropout rate.
* Reduce child labor.
* Improve child health, particularly girls’.
* Lower high fertility rates when migration is to low-fertility countries and raise them when migration is to high-fertility countries.
* Promote entrepreneurship. [Read more]

Kenya: Trend-seeting M-PESA goes international

03-August-2007: Mobile phone service provider Safaricom has launched an international version of its trend-setting electronic money transfer service, M-Pesa.The service, to be delivered in partnership with Vodafone Plc — the UK telecoms giant with a 40 per cent shareholding in Safaricom, marks the entry of Kenya’s top mobile phone firm into the remittances transmission business whose value was estimated at Sh76 billion last year.

Ms Paulin Vaghaun, the head of M-Pesa at Safaricom, told Business Daily that the company had decided to launch the international service to cash in on the growing amount of financial transfers between the two countries.“Kenyans in the UK deserve an efficient and speedy means of sending money home and this is what we are offering,” she said. The pilot phase of the project will last three months before the official roll-out of the service. [Read more]

Kenya: Is It a Brain Drain Or Forex Source?

Business Daily (Nairobi)
OPINION10 August 2007Posted to the web 10 August 2007
Prof Makinda

In the past few weeks, several reports have raised important questions about the effects of Kenyans abroad on the national economy.
Two recent reports published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) attribute different types of impact to the Kenyan diaspora. The UNCTAD report highlights the loss of human resources through emigration or the brain drain.

The idea of a brain drain is not new and is predicated on the wrong assumption that Kenyans who live and work abroad are a loss to the country. [Read more]

Friday 10 August 2007

UK allows work extensions, hikes pay of non-EU caregivers

By Veronica UyINQUIRER.netLast updated 05:45pm (Mla time) 08/10/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- The United Kingdom has reversed its policy of not granting work extensions for non-European caregivers and has also raised their annual salary from €12,500 British pounds (P1.156 million) to €14,600 (P1.351 million), recruitment consultant Emmanuel Geslani said Friday.In an interview, he said the policy shift, the result of lobbying by care associations in the UK, will immediately benefit 1,000 Filipino senior carers already in the European country whose work permits have not been extended and are facing deportation. Senior carer is the term by which nurses or midwives are known.Geslani said the new policy will also benefit some 25,000 Filipino senior carers in the UK whose work permits will eventually expire later and the thousands more in the Philippines who aspire to work there. [Read more]

Monday 6 August 2007

Company accused of abducting Filipinos to build U.S. Embassy in Iraq

By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: August 3, 2007

MANILA: The Filipinos thought they were flying to Dubai. One of them told a fellow passenger how excited he was about his new job as a telephone repairman at a hotel in the emirate.

It was only after liftoff from Kuwait, when the captain made an announcement, that they learned their destination was, in fact, Baghdad.

“All you-know-what broke loose on that airplane. People started shouting,” said Rory Mayberry, an American passenger on the flight who had been hired to work in the Iraqi capital.

The Filipinos settled down only after a security guard from the company that had hired them waved a submachine gun, according to Mayberry. “They realized they had no other choice but to go to Baghdad,” he said. [Read more]

Indians working overseas set to benefit from new measures

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs is planning a slew of measures for the benefit of its nationals working as household workers in foreign countries, including a minimum fixed wage that would have to be paid to them by their employers.

Foreign employers would soon have to register a copy of the work contract with the Indian mission in that country, official sources said adding the mission will verify the details before attesting the contract and sending it to the employee in India.

“We want to make emigration rules stricter, especially in the case of women,” they said adding the process to amend the Emigration Act was in an advanced stage. The norms will apply to workers hired as ayahs, butlers, cooks and drivers, they said.

The ministry has also proposed to start a monitoring mechanism to ensure proper implementation of these measures.

Concerned over the exploitation of Indian women workers in certain countries, the ministry is also establishing shelters for distressed women migrants and offer legal services to ensure effective access to justice. [Read more]

Philippines: OFWs hit govt for remittance rule

Overseas Filipino workers are up in arms over the government's proposal for them to send their remittances solely through the Philippine Postal Savings Bank, abs-cbnNEWS.com learned Wednesday.

"Yes it (government) is willing to give us a special rate, provided we course our remittances through their favorite Postal Saving Bank," said Francis Oca in an e-mail from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Oca, a certified public accountant who has beenin Riyadh for the last 23 years, said he feels insulted by the proposal.

Oca questioned a proposal by Malacañang that was backed by President Arroyo's economic managers to allocate $1 billion in funding to exporters for a preferential peso-dollar exchange rate.

The proposal came amid the continued improvement of the peso against the US dollar. From 56 in September 2005, the peso now averages at 45:$1. [Read more]

'Foreign workers should be treated at par with locals'

IANS Friday 3rd August, 2007

Countries where foreign workers are mistreated would soon lose out to countries that deal with migrant workers favourably, according to the chief of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

'The day is not far away when any country which abuses or exploits foreign workers will find itself at a big disadvantage,' IOM Director General Brunson McKinley, who was here to sign a memorandum of understanding between IOM and the ministry of overseas Indian affairs (MOIA), told IANS in an interview.

'You see, there are a number of countries across the world which are facing increasing labour shortage and looking to import labour from other countries. So, if a worker is mistreated in one country, he can always opt to work in another country with a better reputation of treating foreign workers,' he said. [Read more]

Jobs for Indians in EU to get easier

NEW DELHI: Migration of Indian workers to countries in the European Union (EU) is set to become easier with the government initiating a process to facilitate development of legal migration between India and the EU.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) and the International Organization of Migration (IOM) was signed here on Tuesday.
The new MoU on Regional Dialogue and Facilitating Managed and Legal Migration between India and the European Union will aim at facilitating development of legal migration, enhancing regional cooperation on legal migration management and enhancing dissemination of information relating to employment opportunities in EU countries.

“India is one of the handful of leading countries in the world when it comes to overseas workers,” IOM Director General Brunson McKinley said following the signing of the accord. [Read more]

Bangladesh: 'Dhaka needs to seek new destinations'

Saturday, August 04,2007

DHAKA: Sustaining the remittance growth has become a major challenge for Bangladesh as the development dynamics in the Middle East has been changing fast, adopting latest technologies and requiring highly skilled workers in almost all sectors.

The country needs to progressively change the country mix and increase skill level of its migrant workers to sustain its remittance growth, said Professor Imtiaz Ahmed of Dhaka University.

Since fiscal year 1999–2000, Bangladesh has received around 85 per cent of its remittance from only five countries — Saudi Arabia, the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. In the last fiscal year, these five countries accounted for more than $5 billion of the total remittance inflow of $5.98 billion.
But, recently the development dynamics in the three Middle East countries has been changing rapidly, posing a threat to Bangladesh’s manpower exports. [Read more]

Pacific needs migrant workers: Zoellick

August 2, 2007 - 7:34AM

World Bank president Bob Zoellick says it is "absolutely critical" that Australia open its gates to migrant workers from its South Pacific neighbours.

"Labour mobility is absolutely critical to the long-term development of the South Pacific," Mr Zoellick told Fairfax newspapers.

"I don't know about Australia's visa and immigration rules but labour mobility will be important for remittances and skills" in neighbour countries.

Mr Zoellick said the move would boost the fledgling economies in neighbouring countries such as Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and East Timor. [Read more]

Pakistan: Migrant Workers: Slaves Of

By Abdol Moghset Bani Kamal

03 August, 2007
Countercurrents.org


As soon as Murad Bux arrived, his 13-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter were introduced to him. He hugged them and wept. He was a servant of an Arab Shaikh in Qatar and his master had allowed him to visit his family after 12 years for a duration of two months. When he was asked how his life had gone in Qatar. His reply was: “For me, each day has been as long as a year. As if the time was hanged and the globe had stopped revolving around the sun”. [Read more]

Philippines: Overseas Filipinos Launch Campaign for Special Foreign Exchange Rate

Romy Tangbawan, Arab News

JEDDAH, 6 August 2007 — If you and your family are adversely affected by the drastic rise of the Philippine peso against the US dollar, here’s your chance to be heard in Manila: A petition letter for a special exchange rate for OFWs.

The letter is addressed to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and it will be delivered to Malacaٌang as soon as a substantial number of signatures are gathered, initiators of the campaign said.

“The more signatures we get, the better so that our officials in Manila will listen,” said Ronnie Abeto, one of the leaders of the V-Team – Advocacy and Community Service group that is spearheading the campaign.

He said that as the government has readily offered to grant relief to Philippine exporters of goods, there’s no reason not to give a little help to OFWs. [Read more]

Bangladesh: Manhandling manpower

Between a lack of regulation on the part of the government, and unscrupulous and often criminal practices in the thriving underworld of unregulated labour export, Bangladeshi migrant workers are left quite unprotected.

By : Saad Hammadi

His organisation sends Bangladeshis out of the country by utilising fake passports, Hasan Fakir, a core member of a Dhaka-based manpower-trafficking syndicate, recently confessed. Fakir, who runs a labour-recruitment agency, was arrested by the authorities on 3 June. He was accused of illegally sending one Basir Uddin to Malaysia, and later demanding ransom from Basir’s family in exchange for his release from the syndicate’s custody. [Read more]

Ghana: Remittances - Viable Source of Investment Capital for Dev't

Daniel Nonor

A NATIONAL policy on migration has been identified as an integral aspect in harnessing the full potentials of remittances, which constitute the second largest capital inflow to the development of the country.

According to World Bank figures, private inward transfer from non -governmental organizations, individuals and other institutions through the bank of Ghana and other financial institutions, as at January to November 2006, stood at $4.25billion, making the largest source of foreign exchange into the country. Additionally figures released by the central bank as remittances for the first quarter of 2007 also indicated $1.52 billion representing an increase of about 17.1% over the same period last year.


The Minister of Finance, Hon Kwadwo Baah Wiredu at a discourse meeting jointly organized by the United Nations Development Programme, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and the Private Enterprise Foundation on finding options for harnessing the development potential of migration in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, reiterated that increases in remittances over the years has played a pivotal role in the socio-economic development of the country. [Read more]