Government representatives from the Philippines and Italy are today
meeting members of the Filipino diaspora to discuss ways to enhance
the development potential of remittances.

Representatives from international organizations, NGOs and the
private sector are also attending the two-day meeting, which opened
yesterday in Rome, to identify best practices that will encourage
the investment of remittances in activities that will stimulate
growth and employment in the Philippines. 

As part of the event, preliminary findings of an on-going IOM
research project on remittance flows between Italy and the
Philippines will be presented. 

The research shows that 72 per cent of Filipinos in Italy send
money home on a monthly basis, with 63 per cent saying they remit
on average 350 Euros per month.

Forty percent of the respondents said they had been sending
money home for more than 10 years, with women on average remitting
more money than men.

When asked about their future plans, 55 per cent of respondents
said they wanted to bring their families to Italy, although an
overwhelming majority (91 per cent) said they planned to retire in
the Philippines. 

Some 26 per cent of the interviewees confirmed they had invested
money in rotating and savings associations locally known as
paluwagans and a further 38 per cent had invested in cooperatives
and in rural banks.

The 8.73 million Overseas Filipinos remitted USD 16.4 billion in
2008, which represents 9.7 per cent of the gross domestic
product. 

However, the global financial crisis has led to a reduction in
the number of Filipinos deployed abroad and to a slower growth rate
of remittance inflow, with a 2 per cent recorded growth in February
2009 compared to 13 per cent annual growth recorded in 2008.

This event is part of an EC-funded programme carried out by IOM
Manila to improve the knowledge of remittance corridors, enhance
the development potential of remittances through inter-regional
dialogue through the setting up of pilot projects in Southeast Asia
and Europe.

For further information, please contact:

Flavio Di Giacomo

IOM Rome

Tel: + 39 06 44 186 207

E-mail: "mailto:fdigiacomo@iom.int">fdigiacomo@iom.int

or

Aiko Kikkawa

IOM Manila

Tel: +63 2 848 12 60

E-mail: "mailto:akikkawa@iom.int">akikkawa@iom.int