'Significant reforms taking place in remittance transfer'

Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) of University of Dhaka organised a daylong workshop on 'Communication campaign on remittance: Content construction' yesterday to develop message for the awareness campaign under Remittance and Payment Partnership (RPP) project, says a press release.

RPP is a project of Bangladesh Bank. The aim of this project is to produce measurable impacts over price, speed and growth of remittance in Bangladesh.

RMMRU and the International Organisation for Migration are jointly in charge of implementing output 3 of the project. Dr C R Abrar, coordinator of RMMRU, chaired the inaugural session while Richard Boulter, Sr private sector adviser, Growth Team from DFID Bangladesh, was present as the special guest.

Prof Dr Tasneem Siddiqui presented the keynote paper highlighting global and national migration remittance trends.

She emphasised the comparative advantage of remittance vis-a-vis FDI, private capital flow and foreign aid.

She said that significant reforms are taking place in respect to introduction of new methods of remittance transfer i.e., door-to-door, instant cash and mobile-to-mobile. However, accessibility to information on available investment product is very poor.

Md Abdul Mannan, deputy executive president and head of International Banking Wing, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, also spoke.

The workshop identified male and female migrants, prospective migrants, their families, policymakers, bank officials, immigration, and customs officials as the target audience for information campaign.

The participants identified TV and radio PSAs, talk show, brochures, billboards and festival in the sending countries as the avenues for information dissemination.