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Foreign Workers Send $10 Billion from UAE in 2008

DUBAI - With more than $10 billion sent from the UAE by foreign workers in 2008, the Emirates has become the second top source of fund remittances in the GCC after Saudi Arabia, money transfer experts said.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that the remittance volume in the UAE, which has 185 foreign exchange houses and branches, is expected to jump by five per cent this year.

Money Transfer International, or MTI, a global trade association of remittance companies, said on Tuesday that the GCC was again poised to drive growth in the remittance sector in 2009, even though the global economy is in a downturn.

These upbeat forecasts for GCC remittances came against the backdrop of a World Bank prediction that global remittances by foreign workers to developing countries would fall by $15 billion this year to $290 billion, as the global economy limps along.

The World Bank estimates that global remittances totalled $397 billion in 2008. Of this total, $305 billion sent by 190 million migrants comprising three per cent of the world population went to developing countries.

India was the top recipient of remittances in 2008, accounting for $45 billion. China came next, with $34 billion, followed by Mexico ($26 billion), the Philippines ($18 billion) and Poland ($11 billion), the World Bank said in its revised Migration and Development Brief.

However, a spokesman of the Gulf’s largest remittance company who did not want to be identified said that remittances by non-resident Indians far exceeded the figure given by the World Bank.

Premal Patel, MTI’s regional director, said that the GCC region was one of the top five performers last year in the global remittance industry. The UAE, with its many expatriates from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Egypt, Sudan and Lebanon, was set to play a crucial role in remittance sector growth, Patel said.

According to MTI data, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait are the GCC’s best performers, with the UAE ranking as the world’s third largest source of remittances. MTI recently launched its Gulf chapter in the Kingdom of Bahrain on the back of anticipated growth in the region. “The decision to launch MTI Middle East is in direct response from the remittances sector calling for a voice to represent their interests,” said Lady Olga Maitland, MTI’s chief executive officer.

She said that MTI’s global network will expand this year to include four more chapters, including the Philippines and Pakistan. “MTI’s Middle East chapter is geared to facilitate and safeguard the interests of the industry as a whole, be it the consumer, service providers and partners,” Patel said.

issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com