Realizing full well the impact of remittance payments on the overall Bangladeshi economy, the sitting government has announced that it would rein in the ways and means of sending payments back home through back, underground channels.
In a complementary move, the cabinet announced a new Expatriate Welfare bank that would provide loans to workers who wish to travel abroad to seek employment.
The Daily Star reports:
“The bill was approved so that the Bangladeshi workers could go abroad for employment after getting loan from the bank, Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad told newsmen after a regular cabinet meeting at the Cabinet Division of the secretariat.”
Structured with or without collateral, expatriate workers would repay the loans through their wages earned abroad. This system promises to increase Bangladesh foreign reserves.
Without seeing the fleshed out language that will be approved, this move seems to promise more systematic remittance payments through government sponsored channels.