Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) remitted a total of $9.082 billion in the first six months of 2010, which represented a 5.9 percent jump over the $8.4 billion recorded for the same period last year, the head of the Central Bank of the Philippines reported.
But the more significant aspect in the increase, said Governor Amando Tetangco Junior, was the $1.6 billion that the OFWs remitted to their families in June alone.
Tetangco said that amount was the highest monthly remittance level recorded by the central bank, eclipsing the previous monthly record of $1.5 billion registered in May of this year.
He noted: “In June, remittance flows peaked at $1.6 billion, reflecting a year-on-year expansion of 8.3 percent boosted by remittances from both sea-based and land-based OFWs.:”
Tetangco traced this to the continued deployment abroad of professional and skilled Filipino workers who were paid higher salaries.
Records at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that approved jobs totaled 356,878 in the first seven months of the year, Tetangco reported. Of the total, he said more than one third consisted of processed job orders for service, professional, technical, production and related workers.
The continued deployment of professional and skilled OFWs, given the favorable global employment opportunities, underpinned the resilience of the remittances, Tetangco pointed out.
Moreover, Tetangco said work prospects for OFWs have brightened following the plan of the Japanese Shipowners Association to hire 2,000 Filipinos as officers and crew of high-end Japanese vessels over the next two years.
As before, he said the bulk of the remittances or 81.7 percent, came from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East, the US and Canada in North America, the United Kingdom and Italy in Europe and Singapore in Asia.
For the whole of this year, Tetangco said the central bank has upgraded its growth forecast of OFW remittances from six to eight percent due to the strong demand for skilled workers.and break the $17.3 billion recorded in 2009.
According to Tetangco, OFWs and their beneficiaries are to enjoy lower remittance fees starting at the third quarter with the Monetary Board’s agreement to waive the fees imposed on banks that use the Philippine Payments and Settlements System (PhilPaSS) remit system for six months.
This will result in savings of between $2 and $10 per transaction, an amount which the present system now charges, he explained.
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