IOM today launched an on-line resource website addressing the
global financial crisis and its impact on the Philippines and
neighbouring countries. 

The website was officially launched in Manila at the annual
celebration of the Month of Overseas Filipinos and International
Migrants Day, co-organized by the Commission for Filipinos
Overseas, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of
Labour and Employment.

The website will serve as an aid to research, analysis and
policy-making for researchers tracking the crisis and its impact on
the Philippines.

The site, which also provides a regional and global perspective,
contains bibliographies and summaries of reports, studies and news
articles. The document references and summaries are provided in a
standard academic format and are classified and searchable by Main
Topics, Key Issues and Regions/Locations. 

According to sources cited in the website, overseas Filipino
workers' remittances have continued to grow, despite the disruption
caused by the global financial downturn.

Remittances in the month of September 2009 reached USD 1.4
billion, up 8.6 per cent from USD 1.33 billion in the same month a
year earlier.

The official Philippine Central Bank projection points to a 4
per cent increase in remittances in 2009 to USD 17.1 billion, up
from USD 16.4 million in 2008. Remittances usually peak in the run
up to Christmas.

This contrasts sharply with the experience of other
migrant-sending countries such as Mexico, Poland and Morocco, which
have all seen a reduction in remittance flows this year. 

The website, which can be accessed through "paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
"http://www.globalfinancialcrisis.ph.iom.int" target="_blank"
title="">http://www.globalfinancialcrisis.ph.iom.int will be
regularly updated to include the latest reports and articles on the
theme.

For more information please contact:

Aiko Kikkawa

IOM Manila

Tel. + 63.02.848.12.60

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