this story was taken from www.inq7money.net
URL: http://money.inq7.net/topstories/view_topstories.php?yyyy=2006&mon=04&dd=13&file=1
Posted: 2:05 AM Apr. 13, 2006
Inquirer
MONEY remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) totaled $1.8 billion in January and February, sustaining a double-digit growth rate of 14 percent from the same period last year despite a slowdown in the number of workes going abroad, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP, the central bank) said Wednesday.
In February, OFW remittances coursed through banks reached $866 million, up 11.6 percent year-on-year despite a 10-percent decrease in number of land-based workers deployed abroad to 134,436, the BSP said, citing preliminary figures from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.
Sea-based workers deployed in February increased 5.9 percent year-on-year to 41,595, it said.
"The increased deployment of highly skilled, thus higher-paid, land-based workers such as engineers, teachers, ship and pilot/aircraft officers, production-related workers and service providers more than compensated for the decline in the total number of deployed land-based workers," the BSP said.
The BSP attributed the increase in OFW remittances partly on commercial banks' expansion of services.
"Commercial banks ... heightened their marketing campaign by offering various 'telemoney' products and services -- such as phone-banking, Internet/online banking and bills payment services-specifically in Hong Kong, the United States, Italy, and the UK as well as strengthened tie-ups with foreign money transfer agents and non-bank channels," it said.
The major sources of OFW remittances were the
The BSP said the government was pursuing programs that would strengthen workers' technical training and education to enhance job-skills matching.
There are about eight million overseas Filipinos, equivalent to about 10 percent of the Philippine population, including three million who are permanent residents overseas. With INQ7.net
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