OSCE Centre organizes conference that studies how labour migrants’ remittances could boost Kyrgyzstan’s economic growth
BISHKEK, 21 December 2010 – An OSCE-organized conference that started today in Bishkek looks at how earnings sent home by migrant workers could contribute to economic development in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Seventy representatives of governments, banks, microcredit companies, think tanks, international organizations as well as embassies from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Moldova are taking part in thetwo-day conference.
Recent OSCE-supported research indicates that labor migrants' remittances could be better used for investment and development in Kyrgyzstan and neighboring Tajikistan.
“Kyrgyzstan’s economy, like so many others globally, relies heavily on migration. Migration, both in an economic as well as a human sense, require policy-makers' constant attention. The OSCE Centre, alongside its national and international partners, will help and support where possible," said the Head of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, Ambassador Andrew Tesoriere.
“International migration results in an increase in aggregate output and income, both in the country of destination and of origin. While the country of destination receives an expanded labour force to increase its productivity, the country of origin receives considerable remittances which can be used by the families of labour migrants to develop of small enterprises. Such investments can reduce poverty and contribute to economic growth.”
Alik Baiboriev, Kyrgyzstan's DeputyMinisterofLabour, Migration, and Employment added:
“States should establish conditions to protect the rights of its citizens working abroad. We should work together with the authorities and the civil society of the countries in which our citizens live and work to promote such protection.”
The OSCE Centre in Bishkek organized the conference together with the Paris-based non-governmental organization Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development, and Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Labour, Employment and Migration. The EU Delegation in Kyrgyzstan supported the event.
The conference is the final event of an OSCE Centre-financed project aimed enabling labor migrants’ to pool their remittances with the help of banks to use them for sustainable economic development.