LEBANON: Connecting Lebanese diaspora with development

BEIRUT: With a diaspora community of millions, and one of the highest remittances rates in the world, Lebanon maintains strong ties to its expats.

Launched in November 2009, Live Lebanon, a one-of-its-kind U.N. Development Program project, has sought to make the most of these links, channeling money from abroad to help development projects in Lebanon.

Fadi Salameh is the Institutional Goodwill Ambassador for UNDP Live Lebanon, representing the project and coordinating with the other ambassadors around the globe, each of whom is responsible for raising funds within their particular community, whether Australia or Brazil, among others.

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PHILIPPINES: The 50-Million O.F.W. Community

MANILA, Philippines — The latest report on remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFW) reflects one of the strongest fundamentals of the Philippine economy, especially amid the global crisis, which has largely been responsible for the double-digit fall in export earnings.

The OFWs' remittances, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), increased by 8.4 percent in September 2011 to $1.74 billion from $1.6 billion in the same month last year on continued strong demand for Filipino workers in various countries. Read more

Nigerians in UK move to boost FDI, remittance

By Clifford Ndujihe
TO improve Foreign Direct Investments, FDI, and remittances from United Kingdom, UK, Nigerian professionals in UK will host a seminar on December 1 to showcase the avalanche of business and investment opportunities in the country.

The seminar, with the theme, Delivering Projects in Complex Environments, is being organised by Nigerian Association of Project Professionals United Kingdom, NAPPUK, in London.

Currently, there are about 150,000 Nigerians in UK. Estimated remittances from Nigerians in the Diaspora stand at $20 billion with the United States accounting for the largest portion of official remittances followed by the UK.

Relatedly, estimated net flow of FDI is about $8 billion. Read more

PHILIPPINES: Weak options to protect overseas Filipino workers

Government authorities have played down  the negative effect of the ban on the deployment of Filipino workers in 41 countries, saying the  impact “is not going to be very big,” as these countries did not receive too many OFWs.

The Department of Labor and Employment announced on Wednesday that it had issued the ban because these blacklisted countries failed to sign international conventions protecting foreign workers from abuse. Specifically, the DOLE board resolution posted on its website said none of these countries had signed agreements with the Philippines “on the protection of the rights of overseas Filipino workers.”

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Do Remittances Reduce Aid Dependency? IMF, October 2011

Summary: Aid has been for decades an important source of financing for developing countries, but more recently remittance flows have increased rapidly and are beginning to dwarf aid flows. This paper investigates how remittances affect aid flows, and how this relationship varies depending on the channel of transmission from remittances to aid. Buoyant remittances could reduce aid needs when human capital improves and private investment takes off. Absent these, aid flows could still drop as remittances may dampen donors’ incentive to scale up aid. Concurrently, remittances could be positively associated with aid if migrants can influence aid policy in donor countries. Using an instrumental variable approach with panel data for a sample of developing countries from 1975–2005, the baseline results show that remittances actually increase aid dependency. However, a refined model controlling for the channels of transmission from remittances to aid reveals that remittances lead to lower aid dependency when they are invested in human and physical capital rather than consumed.


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PHILIPPINES: World Bank eyes support for OFW program

World Bank Group president Robert B. Zoellick said the multilateral lender was open to providing financial support to the Philippines for an assistance program for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) affected by unfavorable events offshore.

In a press conference Thursday, Zoellick, who was in Manila for a two-day visit, acknowledged the ill-effects of the weak economies of the United States and the eurozone on migrant workers.

Zoellick said the bank funded similar assistance programs in the past in other countries, and it was willing to do the same for the Philippines.

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ETHIOPIA: Migration, Despite the Risks

In Africa, a transit centre in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, is a temporary refuge for young men and women—many of them still boys and girls in their teens—who tried and failed to escape poverty by making a debilitating and dangerous trek by land and sea to Saudi Arabia, their vision of a land of opportunity.

Most of them in the shelter, being fed and given health care while they wait for UNICEF to reconnect them to their Ethiopian families, were found in Yemen and repatriated with the help of the IOM. They share the transit centre with Somalis who have fled their ravaged country.

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RUSSIA: Beeline offers online remittances to CIS countries

Russian mobile operator Vimpelcom, working under the Beeline brand, in cooperation with the international transfers system Unistream and the payment system Ruru, is offering online remittance services to the CIS countries. The service is accessible on the Beeline.Money site and offers remittances to Ukraine, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Kyrgyzstan. The operator plans to expand the list of countries. The maximum remittance is RUB 14,000, and the commission fee is 5.95 percent.


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Australia commits to cutting remittance costs

Australia is to spend more than £2 million over the next two years to make it cheaper for migrants from developing Commonwealth countries to send money home to their friends and families.

The £2.3 million package, which was revealed on Wednesday, will be used to help boost competition in the remittance service market, and reduce the often extortionate fees which are charged for transferring money abroad.

Money will also be focused on new technologies, including mobile banking services, which will help migrants to send remittances easily and at little expense.

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PHILIPPINES: Metrobank partners with Wells Fargo to provide remittance services to Filipinos

(Source: Datamonitor)Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., or Metrobank, has partnered with Wells Fargo through Uniteller Financial Services, to provide Filipinos a new way in claiming remittances from their families in the US.

According to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Philippines received $18.76 billion of remittances in 2010, 8.2% higher than 2009. More than 40% of these remittances came from the US. Given the statistics, this remittance alliance gives overseas Filipinos, access to over 10,000 locations where they can remit money to the Philippines.

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PAKISTAN: Remittances increased due to PRI, claims govt

ISLAMABAD - Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Masood Khan Monday said that foreign remittances had increased due to the government’s plan “Pakistan Remittances Initiative” that provided an opportunity to the Pakistanis living abroad to send their money through regular channel.


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PHILIPPINES: PH urged to bolster ties with Saudi

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines needs to reinvigorate bilateral ties with Saudi Arabia to maintain its edge over other labor-sending countries.

“At a time when all of these reforms in Saudi Arabia are taking place, we need a more vibrant economic diplomacy to maintain our competitive advantage over other labor-sending countries,” said Susan Ople, head of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center.

Ople said the Philippine government needs to do this, following the Kingdom's new policies aimed at regulating the number of foreign workers and their remittances.

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JAMAICA: BOJ Reports Increased Remittance Inflows

KINGSTON — The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ), in its latest report on remittances, said that during the month of August, total remittance inflows were US$174.6 million, an improvement of US$17.8 million or 11.4 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

Net remittances for the month, after accounting for outflows, were US$148.9 million, which represented an improvement of US$15.0 million or 11.2 per cent relative to the corresponding period of 2010.

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Mexico logs biggest 12-month gain in remittances since 2006

Mexico City –  Mexico received $2.08 billion in remittances last month, up 21.2 percent from September 2010 for the biggest 12-month increase since October 2006, the country's central bank said Tuesday.

In the first nine months of the year, remittances amounted to $17.28 billion, 6.6 percent more than during the same period in 2010.

Remittances are Mexico's No. 2 source of revenue after oil exports and constitute a lifeline for many families.

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Mexico Remittances Rise the Most in 5 Years on Cheaper Peso

Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican remittances rose at the fastest pace in five years in September as immigrant workers took advantage of the peso’s decline to send more money to relatives.

Even as economic growth slowed in the U.S., money sent back to Mexico rose 21 percent to $2.08 billion in September from $1.72 billion in the same month a year earlier, the central bank said today. Remittances had not risen as rapidly since October 2006, when they shot up 24 percent, central bank data show.

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