RI workers remit $8 million a month

RI workers remit $8 million a month

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): The national savings banks of Malaysia and Indonesia have worked out a system allowing 500,000 Indonesians, earning a total 50 million ringgit (US$20 million) a month here, to remit their earnings home, officials said yesterday.

Each month, these Indonesian workers remit about 20 million ringgit ($8 million), or 36 percent, of their total earnings to relatives, according to figures by Bank Simpanan Nasional, Malaysia's largest savings bank.

The International Guaranteed Giro Order service (IGGO), jointly expedited by Bank Simpanan and PT Bank Tabungan Negara of Indonesia, will provide a legal method of transferring savings to families, officials said.

The two banks formalized the IGGO service at the weekend, witnessed by Malaysia's deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, and Indonesia's finance minister, Mar'ie Muhammad.

Bank Simpanan was represented by its chairman, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, and the Indonesian savings bank by its director, Widigdo Sukarman.

"The Indonesian workers can open a savings account with Bank Simpanan, with their work permits, to make use of the IGGO service," Zahid said.

Bank Simpanan, which has 11 million customers with total savings of some 4.2 billion ringgit ($1.68 billion), has 477 branches throughout Malaysia.

"Indonesian workers are now sending part of their savings back to Indonesia through friends or any other means," he said. The IGGO scheme would allow them to cash money orders at any Indonesian Bank Tabungan Negara branch or post offices.

Indonesians make up the bulk of some one million foreign workers now being employed in Malaysia's booming economy.