ESCAP, IOM team up to work on migration issues

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FE Report
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) signed Thursday a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to further strengthen the close collaboration between the two organisations.
The MoU establishes a general framework for cooperation and coordination on international migration issues that are of growing importance to countries in Asia and the Pacific region, said an ESCAP press release.
Out of an estimated 190 million international migrants worldwide, the region accounts for one-third or about 58 million - 53 million in Asia and 5 million in the Pacific, the press release added.
It is estimated that ESCAP member countries received about US$85 billion in remittances in 2004. Remittances from international migration have become a structural element of the Asia-Pacific economy, playing essential roles in sustaining local and national economies.
"The Memorandum of Understanding will formalise our long-standing collaboration with IOM and harmonise our respective activities on international migration and development," said Kim Hak-Su, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, at the memorandum signing ceremony.
"This agreement will allow us to develop joint initiatives with ESCAP at a time when international migration is being recognised as a major factor contributing to development in the region.", stated IOM's Regional Representative for South-East Asia, Irena Vojackova-Sollorano.
ESCAP and IOM are current co-chairs of the Regional Thematic Working Group on International Migration including Human Trafficking - a regional coordination mechanism set up by 16 United Nations agencies and other relevant international and intergovernmental organisations working on aspects of international migration within their respective programme of work.
The functions of the Working Group include information sharing, identification of priority areas for cooperation and joint programmes, and dissemination of good practices in migration management.
Bangladesh received remittances worth US$5.713 billion during the first eleven and a half months of the current fiscal, which is $911.16 million higher than the same period of last fiscal.
The inward remittance has been gradually increasing over the last few months making the foreign exchange reserve of the country robust. In the first two weeks of the current month alone, the expatriates remitted $246.05 million to Bangladesh, BB (Bangladesh Bank) sources informed.