Bangladesh may earn over $50 million Remittance from Malaysia
Bangladesh Journal
Dhaka, Feb 14: Bangladesh is expecting over US$ 50 million in remittance from Malaysia annually with about quarter of a million expatriates now getting the opportunity to use official channel Agrani Remittance House just opened in the newly industrialized country.
Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman, on return home, said the remittance flow from Malaysia would rise significantly with the opening of the ARH in Malaysia.
“We have set up the Agrani Remittance House only to get an enhanced amount of remittances from Malaysia. And, from now on, the remittances will cross US$ 50 million mark annually,” he said while talking to reporters at Zia International Airport Saturday midnight on return from his tour of Vietnam and Malaysia.
Saifur formally inaugurated the operations of the Agrani Remittance House in Malaysia during his weeklong official visit to the two ASEAN countries.
The Minister informed that around 2.5-lakh Bangladeshi expatriates are living in Malaysia who can now have access to the official channel to repatriate their incomes.
“Bangladeshi expatriates are drawing handsome salary there and we hope the flow of remittances from them will rise significantly,” he told the journalists.
Referring to the Remittance House in Singapore, Saifur pointed out that the government had planned long since to open Agrani Remittance House in Malaysia considering the plight of the Bangladeshi expatriates living there.
In Vietnam, the Finance Minister attended the meeting of Bangladesh-Vietnam Joint Commission. The two sides informed each other about their respective socioeconomic situation and exchanged views on cooperation plans and measures to boost bilateral relations, sources said.
Saifur led the Bangladesh side at the meeting of the Joint Commission on Economic, Commercial, Cultural, Scientific and Technological Cooperation while Vietnamese Trade Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen led the Vietnamese side.
Asked about the outcome of the talks, the Finance Minister said the meeting concluded in a fruitful manner with the two countries having agreed to extend bilateral cooperation to each other.
“We have reached a consensus to cooperate in different sectors, including trade and business,” he said, adding, “we have agreed to exchange assistance in expansion of agriculture, trade, industries and other sectors.”
The Minister also claimed that Vietnam in the meeting responded positively to all the proposals made by Bangladesh.
The two-way trade value increased to 54 million US$ in 2005 from 19.3 million US$ in 2001.
In 2005, Vietnam earned 22.3 million US$ from shipping textiles and fibres, computers, electronics and farm produces to Bangladesh and spent 31.7 million US$ on importing materials for the garment, textile and footwear industries, and urea fertilizer from Bangladesh.
When asked about his next course of action as the internal feud among the members of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is yet to be wiped out, Saifur said that he would think about this in time.
Earlier the Finance Minister in a function few days ago had asked the ACC top officials to shun their internal conflicts to make the corruption watchdog functional.
