October remittances hit record this year

REMITTANCES from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) reached a record this year in October, the Philippine central bank said. In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said money sent home by OFWs through banks rose by 9.3 percent to reach $1.7 billion in October compared with the $1.531 billion in the same month last year.

BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said the growth was boosted by the steady stream of remittance flows from both sea- and land-based workers.

Cumulative remittances for the first 10 months of the year climbed to $15.5 billion, or 7.9 percent higher than the $14.321 billion recorded in the same period last year.

The bulk of remittances came from the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the UK, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Italy, Norway and Germany.

The aggregate transfer of funds from these countries represented 84 percent of the total remittances reported by the banks, the BSP said.

“The sustained remittance flows into the country were due to the sustained robust demand for skilled and professional Filipinos,” Tetangco said.

He said this was combined with the increasing presence of bank and non-bank money transfer conduits both locally and internationally. The expanding range of products and services offered by financial intermediaries to OFWs and their beneficiaries also contributed to the strong inflow of remittances, the BSP chief said.

“In particular, the continuing efforts to improve on the variety and coverage of the global remittance networks have enabled more overseas Filipinos to send remittances using more financial services offered in the market,” he said.

At end-September, the number of bank branches, remittance centers, correspondent banks and tie-ups reached 4,392 compared with the 3,730 last year.

Preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that approved job orders so far this year reached 578,535, of which about 39.2 percent were processed job orders for service, production, professional, technical and related workers.

The bulk of the approved job orders was for sites in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Tetangco said the deployment outlook for Filipinos overseas remained upbeat given continuing bilateral talks with host countries to match manpower requirements with the competencies of local workers.

The Department of Labor and Employment reported the plan of employers in Algeria to hire more workers for their various infrastructure projects, the central bank said.

In addition, the POEA reported that the recruitment for the military base construction in Guam will start in the fourth quarter of 2011.

For 2010, the BSP forecast remittances to grow by 8 percent to about $18 billion. –LAILANY P. GOMEZ REPORTER, Manila Times