• Saturday, October 30, 2010
• Inter Press Service

Financial remittances to the Central Asian Republics by millions of both undocumented and legal migrants working in Russia have increased substantially, labour experts say.

'Russia is the most important source of migrant remittances for many CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States, former Soviet republics) countries, particularly Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine,' Nilim Baruah, senior migration policy adviser for Central Asia at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Moscow told IPS. 'During the economic crisis the volume of remittances fell significantly but still remained large.'

According to the Central Bank of Russia personal remittances from Russia to CIS countries in 2009 added up to 13 billion dollars. The World Bank estimates for Armenia are 729 million dollars, Azerbaijan 1.243 billion dollars, Kyrgyzstan 882 million dollars, Moldava 1.211 billion dollars and Tajikistan 1.747 billion dollars.

Baruah says remittances are particularly important in Tajikistan, Moldova and Kyrgyzstan where remittances as share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008 were as high as 50 percent, 31 percent and 28 percent respectively (World Bank).

An ILO study estimates that about 617 million dollars of remittances were saved by families in Tajikistan in 2008. But most of this did not enter the banking system in the form of deposits or accounts. The survey says 98 percent of remittance receivers did not have a bank account. It finds huge potential for attracting remittances into the banking system provided savers can have greater confidence in banks.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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