Saarc nations contribute below 1% of remittance to Bangladesh

Below 1 percent of the remittance Bangladesh received in 2022-23 fiscal year came from the countries under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), according to a Bangladesh Bank report on trade among Saarc countries.

Remittance inflow to Bangladesh stood at $21.61 billion in FY23, of which only $44.99 million came from Saarc nations, according to the report titled "Export receipts, import payments, and remittances with Saarc countries".

The highest amount of remittance came from the Middle East, the European Union and North America, but the amount from the Saarc region was very negligible compared to other countries, it read.

Among the Saarc nations, the highest amount of remittance -- 64.46 percent -- came from the Maldives while 26.25 percent came from India and 3.31 percent from Sri Lanka. The amount from others were very negligible.

However, Bangladesh's import payments stood at $10.33 billion for the Saarc region in FY23, which was 15.07 percent of the total of $68.6 billion, the report showed.

Bangladesh made the highest import payment among Saarc nations to India, 91.84 percent, and 6.76 percent to Pakistan.

Of Bangladesh's total export earnings of $43.57 billion, only 4.4 percent originated from Saarc countries, the Bangladesh Bank report said.