Susan Smith, Staff Reporter
Dr. Manuel Orozco, (left) executive director for the remittance and development project of the multilateral investment fund of the Inter-American Bank and United Nations' International Fund for Agricultural Development, smiles along with Earl Jarrett, general manager of Jamaica National Building Society. They were participants in the JNBS/USAID Money Transfer Symposium at the Jamaica Conference Centre yesterday. - RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
GOVERNMENT PLANS to zero in on the flow and use of remittances within the Jamaican economy, says Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. Omar Davies.
He said the Government is seeking additional information on remittances in order to monitor the use of the funds for improvement in the country's socio-economic conditions.
Additionally, he said the information will be useful to regulate Jamaica's foreign exchange and interest rates policies.
Dr. Davies was addressing participants at the Jamaica National Building Society/the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Money Transfer Symposium, held at the Jamaica Conference Centre yesterday in Kingston.
Defining remittances as "the portion of workers' salaries put back into the economy", Dr. Davies emphasised, "We're not interested in this in terms of trying to control the flow. We are interested in terms of the impact it has on some of the social and economic conditions."
He said Jamaica's annual net income in foreign exchange from remittance services is comparable to that of the gross tourism earnings. Being fully aware that remittance now presents a sustainable flow of foreign exchange to Jamaica, Dr. Davies said, "Government needs to catch up on some analytical research on remittances."
"While we cannot quantify its impact on the foreign exchange market, the access to these additional funds each month provides the BoJ with a cushion for which it can then determine its foreign exchange policies," he stated.
He explained that any additional information will make the Government better off in its policy making decisions.
The foreign exchange inflows from remittance for year 2004 stood at $1.4 billion.
Although the remittance flows have no sort of seasonal variations, it has impacted on the stability of the foreign exchange market.
Dr. Davies said the Government would like to look at a large number of issues in the industry. Some of these include determining what per cent of the total flow of foreign exchange comes from remittances; who the beneficiaries are; the social make of the group benefitting from remittances; getting more information on the remitter and having full data on the actual profit margins from remittances.
