Potentials of OFW remittances cited

More than ever, today’s Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are emerging as the country’s economic savior, with their pooled resources amounting to over $8 billion (P400 billion) as a potential source of unborrowed capital for local businesses.

"Harnessing this huge dollar income for productive enterprise is the key to widening the country’s entrepreneurial and domestic capital base, which can enormously raise national productivity and protect us all from external financial shocks," said Eduardo del Rosario, chairman of the Overseas Filipinos WorldNet (OFWNet) Foundation, Inc.

OFWNet is a private non-stock, non-profit organization formed by more than 1,000 migrant Filipino leaders worldwide to serve the needs of OFWs and their families, protect their interests, and pursue their socioeconomic and political welfare individually and collectively.

"In pursuit of that goal, the OFWNet has created the OFW Int’l Holdings as the umbrella corporation of the various businesses that will be spawned by pooling the resources of migrant Filipinos and empowering them economically and financially to be reintegrated successfully and productively into the mainstream of Philippine society," Del Rosario added.

A big step in that direction is the staging of the "Overseas Filipinos Worldwide Conference & Trade Exhibit" on May 23-25 at the SM Megatrade Hall 3 in Mandaluyong City, Philippines.

Organized by OFWNet, the three-day event will serve as a forum for overseas Filipinos, their families and colleagues to discuss the best possible means for the reintegration process.

These include socioeconomic issues, government policy directions, and business development prospects for OFWs.

On the other hand, the trade exhibit will offer various investment opportunities and trade matching activities between OFWs and various business entities, including the franchising industry.

This process will help the OFWs find the most lucrative enterprise for their investments, which can provide them, not only with secondary income, but also financial security, after their employment abroad.

"In fact, these activities can give rise to new SMEs (small and medium enterprises) that will be owned and operated by OFWs," said Norman Ray Gacula, executive vice president and chief operating officer of OFW Int’l Holdings.

The OFW Conference and Trade Exhibit is sponsored by Insular Life Assurance Co. Ltd., and INQ7.net.

For booth reservation and conference registration, call tel. 8960639/37, 8996893; fax 8960637, 8902101, email [email protected]; and visit http://www.fmi.com.ph.

With some eight million OFWs worldwide and an average number of five family members each, their total household population conservatively placed at 40 million also offers a huge market for various products and services.

The OFWs’ remittances of over $8 billion annually account for at least half of the country’s monthly average dollar or gross international reserves.