OVERSEAS FILIPINO WORKER REMITTANCES RISE 11.6 PCT IN FEBRUARY.

MANILA, April 13 Asia Pulse - Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) continue to provide economic gains for the Philippines, with remittances for February reaching US$866 million, representing on-year growth of 11.6 per cent.

According to the records of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines), remittances for January to February 2006 skyrocketed to US$1.8 billion from US$1.6 billion in 2005.

These remittances are only those coursed through commercial banks and not including those remitted from other avenues.

The higher level of remittances during the review period was partly attributed to commercial banks expansion of banking services. Commercial banks, remaining at the forefront of providing means of remittance transfers, heightened their marketing campaign by offering various telemoney products and services (e.g. phone-banking, internet/online banking, bills payment services) specifically in Hong Kong, USA, Italy, UK as well as strengthened tie-ups with foreign money transfer agents and non-bank channels, BSP officials said.

These activities by commercial banks, BSP noted, overshadowed the decline in the total number of deployed overseas workers.

Preliminary figures from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) indicated that for the first two months of 2006, the total number of deployed land-based workers contracted by almost 10 per cent to 134,436 while the number of sea-based workers rose by 5.9 per cent to 41,595.

However, 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.

To maintain the competitiveness of OFWs, the government pursued programs that will strengthen workers technical training and education to enhance job-skills matching.

The major sources of remittances remained the United States, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

(PNA) 13-04 1228