Despite the global coronavirus pandemic, Bangladesh’s remittance inflow shows a stronger growth to reach a new record of $8.83 billion of the first four months in the current fiscal, up 43.24 percent over the same period of the previous fiscal.
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. Remittance inflow to the country is touching new heights every passing year notwithstanding multifarious limitations and challenges.
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.
Expat workers’ hard-earned money, sent through
proper channels, immensely contributed to the
huge influx of remittance
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.
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. Authorities concerned should therefore open more vocational training centres and invest more in the education sector. Also there is a need to facilitate the banking system for migrant workers so that they can easily send home their hard-earned money.
