Indonesian migrant workers continue to make major contributions to the country's economy through their remittances home.<\/p>\n
During the second quarter, migrant workers sent home US$1.5 billion, a 5.4 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Bank Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The central bank said it expected the full-year figure to reach $4.9 billion.<\/p>\n
Triyono Widodo, Bank Indonesia's director for economic statistics, said Friday the figure was about the same as last year, although there was the possibility of a slight increase.<\/p>\n
\"It is possible that we will see higher remittance revenue this year because the number of migrant worker placements has been increasing,\" Triyono told news portal tempointeraktif.com<\/p>\n
Data show an increase both in migrant worker placements in several countries, as well as a rise in average salaries for migrant workers, especially for those in Singapore and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
The minimum montly salary for a migrant worker in Singapore has risen to S$350 from S$280. In Saudi Arabia the minimum salary has risen to 800 real from 600.<\/p>\n
Triyono said the higher remittances had pushed the current transfer into a surplus.<\/p>\n
\"Because of the remittances, the current transfer in the second quarter of this year experienced a US$1.3 billion surplus, a $100 million increase from the $1.2 billion of last year's surplus.\"<\/p>\n
Migrant workers in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, two major destination countries for Indonesian workers, contributed $1.1 billion of the second quarter remittances, or some 73 percent of the total.<\/p>\n
Of Indonesia's 4.7 million legal migrant workers, around 83 percent work in those two countries.<\/p>\n
On the outflow side, foreign workers in Indonesia in the second quarter remitted $224 million to their home countries, a 19 percent decline from the same period last year. (14)<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/indonesia-migrant-workers-score-big-1192955072", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }