Foreign remittances top US$ 890 million

Charumini DE SILVA

Sri Lanka's foreign remittances from Sri Lankans working in many parts of the world recorded an increase of 14.1 percent in the first three months of this year compared to the corresponding period last year.

Foreign remittances during the first three months amounted to US$ 890.6 million compared to US$ 780.7 million in 2009, a senior Central Bank official told Daily News Business.

These remittances were mainly from Sri Lankan migrant workers in Middle East countries. This segment accounts for 60 percent of the total remittances, while 20 percent were remitted by Sri Lankans working in Europe. The remaining remittances were from North America, South East Asia and the Far East.

He said there is scope for new markets of foreign remittances, which Sri Lanka could focus on. One of the main regions is the East Asia. East Asian countries such as South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia have much potential, while Italy is a prospective market in Europe.

The remittances received from countries such as South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Italy have shown a significant increase in the recent years, the official said.

The total skilled work force that departed during the first four months was 25,604 while unskilled worker departures recorded 18,370. Highest number of skilled (10,514) and unskilled (5,371) employees have gone to Doha Qatar while the rest went to Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Jordan.

There is a positive trend in departing to countries such as Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Afghanistan and Japan. The total departures during the first four months accounted 86, 421 according to the provisional statistics of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB).

A senior official of the SLFEB said due to the global financial downturn majority of the countries did not increase the salaries of employees. However, with the economies recovering the salaries will be increased in the near future. There is an increase in the departures of housemaids and Sri Lanka is the second highest to receive an average salary of US$ 200 per housemaid.