Increasing the remittances is the best option to get rid of dependence on international lenders and government should provide remitters cost effective and technologically advanced delivery channels so they could prefer to use official channels for sending money which will give boost to remittances.

This was observed by Mian Shaukat Masud, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) in a statement. He said due to non-availability of proper facilitation services to remitters, expatriate Pakistanis are forced to use undocumented hawala network which represents both a loss of revenue to government and a welfare loss for remitters.

Citing benefits of increasing remittances, he said remittances contributed significantly to Pakistan’s economic development as they helped revive economic activity; created employment opportunities; reduced poverty; improved the living standards of the recipient families; prevented the balance of payment crisis; built foreign exchange reserves; provided stability in exchange rate and improved the country’s credit rating.

He said Pakistanis living abroad sent home record $7.811 billion during financial year 2008-09 showing a growth of 21 percent as compared to the previous year. However, this amount could be enhanced manifold by addressing the major impediments to the flow of remittances like insufficient presence of Pakistani banks in overseas jurisdictions and lack of marketing efforts. 

He called upon the government to take steps to reduce the cost and time for sending remittances, including removing barriers to entry and competition in the remittance market. It should encourage commercial banks and other stakeholders to adopt various cost-effective and modern delivery channels that would help increase the quantum of home remittances significantly, he stressed.