Tag Archives: pakistan
India tops global remittances list
India tops global remittances list Issac John / 4 October 2013 With the developing world on track to receive $414 billion in migrant remittances in 2013 — an increase of 6.3 per cent over the previous year — India again topped the global chart with $71 billion in remittances, according to a revised World Bank forecast. Other top recipients of officially recorded remittances for 2013 are China ($60 billion), the Philippines ($26 billion), Mexico ($22 billion), Nigeria ($21 billion), and Egypt ($20 billion), the report said. The World Bank said migrant remittances to developing world is projected to jump to $540 billion by 2016. The GCC is already the largest send market for South Asian and Mena countries, contributing close to 50 per cent of the market. It also accounted for more than 40 per cent of the total inward remittances received by the market, said Sudhesh Giriyan, vice-president & business head, Xpress Money. “GCC will continue to grow in its stature as a major remittance source bloc with countries like the UAE and Qatar lining up major development projects, particularly in infrastructure, which will, in turn, lead to more influx of expatriate labour force,” said Giriyan. India’s projected remittance receipt is just short of three times the FDI (foreign direct in-vestment) it received in 2012, when the country’s recorded $69 billion in total remittances. India and China alone will represent nearly a third of total remittances to the developing world this year, said Dilip Ratha, economist and the manager of the Migration and Remittances Unit at the World Bank. Other large recipients include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Ukraine. Remittance in-flows to the Middle East and North Africa region are expected to grow by 3.6 per cent in 2013 to about $49 billion. With about $20 billion in remittances anticipated in 2013, Egypt is the sixth largest beneficiary in the developing world, and receives about 40 per cent of remittances sent to the Mena region. Migration within the Mena region is growing, accounting for a growing share of migrants. The largest corridor is from Egypt to the GCC, where there are 2.4 million Egyptian migrants, including 1.3 million in Saudi Arabia alone, the World Bank said. Remittances to Lebanon and Morocco, two other large recipients in the Mena region, are expected to recover in 2013, after flat or negative growth in 2012. In 2012, the total remittances made by migrant workers in the Arab Gulf states amounted to $80 billion (representing a fifth of the global remittances), out of which 24 per cent were remitted by the migrant workers in the UAE for the same year, according to Ambassador Ahmed Al Jarman, Permanent Representative of the UAE to the United Nations at a UN roundtable. Globally, the world’s 232 million international migrants are expected to remit earnings worth $550 billion this year, and over $700 billion by 2016, says the latest issue of the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief. As a percentage of GDP, the top recipients of remittances in 2012 were Tajikistan (48 per cent), Kyrgyz Republic (31 per cent), Lesotho and Nepal (25 per cent each), and Moldova (24 per cent). Growth of remittances has been robust in all regions of the world, except for Latin America and the Caribbean, where growth decelerated due to economic weakness in the United States. In South Asia, remittances are noticeably supporting the balance of payments. In Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, remittances are larger than the national foreign exchange reserves. All these countries (most notably, Pakistan) have instituted various incentives for attracting remittances. In India, remittances are larger than the earnings from IT exports. With the weakening of the Indian rupee, a surge in remittances is expected as non-resident Indians take advantage of the cheaper goods, services and assets back home. “Fall in the rupee exchange rate and attractive interest rates on external deposits have helped drive remittances to India, thereby supporting the balance of payments situation and contributing 3.7 per cent to India’s GDP,” said Promoth Manghat, vice-president — global operations, UAE Exchange. The Indian rupee depreciated by over 20 per cent during the first three quarters of 2013, among other things due to concerns over continuing current account deficits in India and the impact of an expected tightening of monetary policy in the US, which has induced a general retrenching of international capital and reduced flows to India. While actual data have not yet been compiled for the third quarter of 2013, money transfer operators are reporting a surge in remittances, as Indian migrants benefit from a higher value of their remittances in India. Remittances to India in the first half of 2013 were $35.6 billion. issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
India, Pakistan leaders reach no concrete agreements
India, Pakistan leaders reach no concrete agreements (Reuters) / 30 September 2013 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, agreed on Sunday to work to restore a cross-border ceasefire after a spate of shootings in order to improve strained ties, officials said. Singh and Sharif met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, amid heightened tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours over the Kashmir region, sparked by series of fatal clashes on their de facto Himalayan border. India emerged from the meeting of more than an hour calling the talks “useful” while Pakistan called the atmosphere “very positive.” They both expressed a desire to improve ties but agreed that “peace and tranquillity across the LOC (Line of Control) is a precondition,” Indian national security adviser Shivshankar Menon told reporters in New York. “We need to address the issues that we face today and then we hope to move it forward,” he said. Pakistan’s Secretary for Foreign Affairs Jalil Abbas Jilani told reporters the New York meeting set the stage for future cooperation even though they did not reach specific agreements. “The most significant aspect of the meeting was that the leaders expressed their commitment to … better relations between the two countries,” he told reporters at a separate New York briefing. “Both sides wish to see a better India-Pakistan relationship than we have today,” said Menon. A series of fatal clashes along the so-called Line of Control dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan have killed at least eight soldiers from both countries in less than two months. The South Asia Terrorism Portal, a website that tracks the violence, says this year’s toll is 44 members of the security forces, up from 17 for all of last year. In their speeches to the U.N. General Assembly, both leaders said they wanted to improve relations between their countries, which have fought three wars since becoming independent from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir. The two prime ministers agreed to instruct military officials to work together to develop a mechanism to stop ceasefire violations, Menom and Jalil said. The two leaders accepted invitations to visit each other’s countries, but no dates were set, Menon added. Continue reading
Pakistan expats fret over slow quake relief
Pakistan expats fret over slow quake relief Nissar Hoath / 27 September 2013 UAE-based expatriates from the Pakistan province of Balochistan, which was devastated by a strong earthquake on September 24, have expressed their anger over delayed relief supplies to affected areas. Most of the people from the earthquake-affected areas who spoke to Khaleej Times were furious that no efforts or initiatives to launch relief campaigns are being taken by the Pakistan Embassy, community organisations and schools in the UAE. “Normally, whenever there is a natural disaster, the entire community rises up to send relief assistance and funds to the affected people. But this time the entire community, including Pakistani diplomatic missions, is sleeping,” said Haji Mohammed Saleem from Awaran, which was most affected area. He added that he and his relatives lost many family members and their properties, including domestic animals in the quake in the Labash and Malar villages of Awaran, which is about 300km from Karachi. A resident of Malar, Waheed Baloch, said even the electronic media of Pakistan is least bothered about the earthquake. “Of all the over-24 big TV channels, only one was on the ground and covering the pain of our people during grieving condition. Throughout these days since Tuesday, the channels were only running tickers about the quake and were busy highlighting the US visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and of other celebrities,” he said. According to him all the figures about casualties and property damages released by the media were wrong and far below. “The earthquake was so strong that it was felt even in remote areas of Western Balochistan in Iran and in India and caused an island to surface from the sea-bed in Gwadar. In Awaran alone, we have buried more than 300 people. But the media says only 400 people have died and another 400 injured. We have more 600 fatalities and over 1,000 injuries in addition to a number of villages being totally destroyed and thousands of people living under the open skies,” he added. Bashir Ahmed Al Balushi, an Omani originally from the Makkorran coast of Balochistan, was also furious about the delay in relief assistance. “Can you believe, only an army convoy with very little supply reached an affected area that too after 24 hours of the deadly quake and only 30 doctors and 300 blankets were despatched for the entire affected areas,” he added. Abdul Qadir Ismail, another expatriate resident, said he was shocked to see the silence of the Pakistani community in the region over this disaster. “A small incident in other areas of Pakistan sees the Pakistani community in the world rising to the occasion and sending relief assistance without loss of time. But this time I’m shocked that even the international community and charity organisations have not moved yet,” he said. He said one of his relatives in Labash, Awaran, Haji Yaqoub lost all his 10 family members, and his properties were also destroyed. “We don’t expect any support from the government of any other organisation. We here in the Gulf will send money to our people to help rebuild their houses and treat the injured. We will have our own relief fund formed by the Baloch community living here and elsewhere in the world as well as in Balochistan,” he added. — nissar@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
