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BB plans to organise road shows abroad to boost forex inflow

. Faruk Ahmed Mollah
Bangladesh Bank(BB) is going to organize road shows and investment fairs abroad to boost inflow of remittance and sales of bonds especially designed for non residence Bangladeshi people.
A view exchange meeting on this issue held at the conference room of the central bank on Thursday with the Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman in the chair where chief executives of different commercial banks hailed the BB's plan.
Deputy governor Abul Quasem and senior executive directors of Bangladesh Bank were also attended the meeting, central bank officials said.  
The governor stressed the need to increase remittance inflow and sales of bonds like Wage Earner Development Bond and US Dollar Premium Bond and US Dollar Investment Bond and urged commercial banks to extend their cooperation to make the program a success.     
He said remittance inflows from migrant workers abroad have been playing a major role in accelerating socio-economic development, promoting employment and underpinning external sector viability of Bangladesh over the last few decades.
Since independence, Bangladesh has been persuading proactive policies to locate overseas labour markets for its nationals and has been remarkably successful in penetrating the labour markets of Middle East, East Asia, and North America.
Between 1976 and 2009, Bangladesh received more than USD 62 billion remittances from its migrant population. The
Chief Executive Officers of commercial banks assured the central bank of their continues support and put some ideas to make the road shows and fairs a success. 
Central bank officials said, the road shows will be held in different cities of USA, UK, Saudi Arab, UAE, Kuwait, Malaysia and Singapore with the view to increase remittance income.
The programme will be started with the visiting of a high powered committee of Bangladesh Bank in USA and UK during second and third weeks of September, central bank officials said.
The venues will be selected on the basis of latest statistics of remittance inflow, they said.
Remittances have emerged as a key driver of economic growth and poverty reduction in Bangladesh, increasing at an average annual rate of 19 percent in the last 33 years.
It is one of the most important economic variables in the economy of Bangladesh as it helps in balancing balance of payments, increasing foreign exchange reserves, enhancing national savings and increasing velocity of money.
For about two decades remittance has been contributing around 35% of export earning. "It is greater than foreign aid and thus helps in lessening dependence on foreign aid", experts say.
The bulk of the remittances are sent by Bangladeshi migrant workers and nearly 64 percent of annual remittance inflows originate from Middle Eastern nations.
The country's total remittance witnessed a 10.26 per cent growth during fiscal 2011-12 and stood at 12.84 billion US dollar.
Of the total earnings, more than 7.42 billion US dollar came from 8 middle eastern countries- KSA, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Libya and Iran, while more than 3.67 million US dollar from more than 10 countries of Asia, Europe and the USA.
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia remained the single largest source of Bangladesh remittance with more than 3.38 billion US dollar income followed by United Arab Emirate with more than 2.18 billion and the USA with more than 1.24 billion.
Central bank officials, however, expressed their hope that the inflow of remittance will increase further if any untoward situation like war and calamities do not occur in the world.
Experts say the authority concerned should intensify more the bilateral relationship with Middle Eastern countries and ensure migration of skilled manpower to increase the volume of remittance.