By ANTHONY IAN CRUZ
Malaya
January 29, 2008

FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo has called on the world community to adopt a “creative approach” to cash in on burgeoning overseas migrant remittances that now stand at triple the amount all countries allot for official development assistance.

In a speech before the West-Islamic Dialogue Session on Migration and Remittances last Saturday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Romulo urged the world to look at remittances with a moist eye, arguing that the figure “draws level with foreign direct investment and collectively represents the largest source of foreign exchange for many countries.

“The world’s migrant workers sent home US$300 billion in remittances in 2006. This is triple the world’s combined development assistance budget in the same year,” said Romulo, referring to studies made by the World Bank.

“In the Philippines – as in many other developing countries – remittances have a large share of the economy. In fact, in the Philippines, remittances have grown from 3 percent to 10 percent over the past 10 years as a share of GDP,” he said.

Filipinos overseas sent home an estimated $15 billion in 2007.

Romulo said that with “greater cooperation in the transmission and use of remittances, growth can be sustained for the benefit of sending and receiving states.” Referring to a Migration Policy Institute study, he called on the dialogue participants to maximize economic benefits for both sending and receiving states through long term-financial literacy programs, skills transfer, reduction of remittances fees and investment alternatives to sustain the economic viability of migrant workers and their families.

Romulo said that “effectively harnessing remittance flows positively contributes to another development goal – the maintenance of security, particularly the thwarting of terrorist financing.”