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.
More Than a Wheelchair: The Case for Mobility That Actually Works
The economic exclusion faced by people with mobility disabilities in Sri Lanka is substantial. Although Sri Lanka has made genuine investments in this area, yet, for many wheelchair users, the journey to work, school, university or a vocational training center remains difficult.
LIRNEasia CEO Helani Galpaya at the SIDS SAIs Symposium in the Maldives
LIRNEasia CEO Helani Galpaya participated as a speaker at the Small Island Developing States Supreme Audit Institutions Symposium (SIDS SAIs), held in Ukulhas, Maldives, from 3–5 August 2026. The symposium was organised by the Auditor General’s Office of the Maldives and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and brought together over 50 participants from 26 countries.
Build Physical Spaces For Children Before Banning Virtual Ones
In today’s digital age, social media has become an integral part of children’s daily lives, shaping how they interact, communicate, and build friendships. In an article published in The Daily Star, LIRNEasia Senior Research Fellow Sujata Gamage examines the growing dependence of children on social media and the risks associated with these platforms.
Links
User Login
Themes
Social
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Contact
9A 1/1, Balcombe Place
Colombo 08
Sri Lanka
+94 (0)11 267 1160
+94 (0)11 267 5212
info [at] lirneasia [dot] net
Copyright © 2026 LIRNEasia
a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific