shirajiv Sirimane
For the first time foreign remittance to Sri Lanka is expected to hit the US $ 4 billion mark by end of this year. this figure stoond at US $ 3.4 billion last year.
Foreign remittance which is Sri Lanka‘s number one foreign exchange earner was at US $ 3.8 billion until last month and is expected to pass the US $ four billion mark by the end of the year.
Chairman, Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Agency SLFEA) Asanga Abayagoonasekara said that over 85 percent of this is coming from unskilled Lankan expatriate workers from the Gulf.
He said that in contract Philippines forex earning is over US S 18 billion and most of it comes via skilled workers employed in the hospitality trade, nursing and in other skilled jobs in the Gulf, Europe and USA..
He said that Sri Lanka should take a leaf from Philippines and shift towards the skilled sector. He said that the government too has acknowledged this fact and is discouraging ‘house maids’ going for overseas employment.