Sending money home by expatriate Bangladeshi workers through formal channel is on the increase since June this year, leading to a spike in the remittance inflow.
Reportedly, Bangladesh received record $17.62 billion in the first 10 months of this year in remittance, up 45 percent from the figure in the same previous period when it was $12.17 billion.
As transactions through “hundi” — an age-old illegal hand-to-hand financial transaction system — massively dropped amid the pandemic, expat workers’ sent their hard-earned money through proper channels. Though millions of Bangladeshi migrant workers are going through harsh times abroad due to Covid-19 pandemic, still they are providing oxygen for the economy by continuing to send remittances at home.
As a consequence of the government’s various endeavours, the tempo of the country’s remittance inflow has remarkably progressed over the last years. Remittance is perceived to be a driving force for fostering a country’s economic growth. Apart from reducing poverty remittance helps us to start new jobs by providing capital. It needs no emphasising that if we can send more skilled workers to new and potential destinations, the remittance flow will increase manifold in the future.
Expat workers’ hard-earned money,
sent through proper channels, immensely
contributed to the huge influx of remittance
But it is dissatisfying to note that larger portion of the remittance comes only from ten countries; hence, more stress on finding new work destinations should be given in due time. In this regard, we need to encourage more European countries to take our workers. And in order to do that, we must ensure that they are skilled and have basic knowledge about foreign languages as well as adaptation abilities. Also we must ensure proper training for foreign jobseekers before sending them abroad.
There is a huge demand for skilled workers like computer operators, graphics designers and medical equipment operators in European countries. Therefore, emphasis should be given on the need for grooming and employing skilled hands and diligent personnel abroad. Also there is a need to facilitate the banking system for migrant workers so that they can easily send home their hard-earned money.