As LIRNEasia plans its research program for 2008-09, the issue of money transfers through mobiles (first raised in the academic literature, to the best of my knowledge, by Professor Jens Arnbak in his contribution to a book that I co-edited in 2002) is rising in importance in the news as well as in our own thinking.
Migrant Cash Is World Economic Giant – Forbes.com
_ India is the world leader in remittances, taking in $23.7 billion in 2005 and an estimated $26.9 billion last year, the World Bank says. Western Union, traditionally one of the most frequently tapped money transfer companies, says its share of Indian transactions has grown at least 90 percent over each of the past six quarters.
_ Immigrants from Albania, one of Europe’s poorest countries, will send more than $1.3 billion back to their homeland this year. That’s 13 percent of Albania’s GDP and enough to finance half the trade deficit.
“Without the money we get from our son, who lives and works in Austria, my family and I would simply starve to death,” said Jovana Acimovic, a housewife struggling to make ends meet in Belgrade, Serbia.
In impoverished Tajikistan, the National Bank says migrant laborers sent home $1.1 billion last year – more than the country’s GDP. Filipinos working overseas sent home a record $13.6 billion in 2005. So much cash is flowing that mobile phone operators make it possible to transfer money over a cell phone.
Powered by ScribeFire.
2 Comments
zzainudeen
According to this report in the Sunday Times (Sri Lanka), “Remittances from migrant workers, the second highest foreign exchange earners to the country, have financed 80 percent of Sri Lanka’s trade deficit in the first half of the year”
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070819/FinancialTimes/ft326.html
Amy Mahan
Indeed. Transfers via mobiles is especially important given the often usurious and wildly ranging transfer charges by banks and financial institutions. Also, remittances to mobile and then m-payments is a way of reaching the unbanked, a platform for micro-credit, etc.
Like the BOP mobile use being counter-intuitive, and as illustrated in the technology appropriation work that Francois Bar is doing (see http://abaporu.wordpress.com/abaporu/), remittances take many different forms and there are some creative solutions for getting the money back home more quickly and more cheaply.
In the Americas – In Ecuador, there is a remittance project in which remittances are made to a local credit union – thus building up savings/resources for investment in the community as well. And, a recent study in Uruguay found that lots of remittances were being effected via the online purchase at Uruguayan store websites (such as La Tienda Inglesa – which sells everything from groceries, to appliances to electronics) paid for remotely and delivered locally. This minimises transfer and exchanges costs – and I suppose gives the remitter more control over how remittances are spent.
Workshop: Digital Tools for Strengthening Public Discourse
Today, LIRNEasia hosted a workshop to launch digital tools created by Watchdog Sri Lanka, funded by GIZ’s Strengthening Social Cohesion and Peace in Sri Lanka (SCOPE) programme. Researchers, practitioners, activists and journalists attended to learn about these tools, and how they can potentially help them in their own lines of work.
Election Misinformation in Sri Lanka: Report Summary
Election misinformation poses a credible threat to Sri Lanka’s democracy. While it is expected that any electorate hardly operates with perfect information, our research finds that the presence of an election misinformation industry in Sri Lanka producing and disseminating viral false assertions has the potential to distort constituents’ information diets and sway their electoral choices.
Election Misinformation in South and South-East Asia: Report Summary
A powerful weapon in a time of global democratic backsliding, election misinformation may undermine democracy via a range of mechanisms. Election misinformation may influence an electorate to cast their ballots for candidates they otherwise might not have on the basis of incorrect information about a country’s economy, the candidates, or some other phenomenon.
Links
User Login
Themes
Social
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Contact
12, Balcombe Place, Colombo 08
Sri Lanka
+94 (0)11 267 1160
+94 (0)11 267 5212
info [at] lirneasia [dot] net
Copyright © 2024 LIRNEasia
a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific