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The government has asked the central bank and Department of National Savings to step up efforts to draw investments by overseas Bangladeshis into foreign currency bonds.
The non-resident Bangladeshis, or NRBs, and workers living abroad are eligible for investing in US dollar premium bond, US dollar investment bond, and wage earners' development bond.
The instruction came at a recent meeting of the government's Cash and Debt Management Committee with finance secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder in the chair.
If needed, the meeting stressed the need for extensive publicity so that expatriate Bangladeshis can be attracted to such investments.
It suggested holding road shows in the countries of the Middle East, Malaysia, European Union, and the United Kingdom, where most of overseas Bangladeshis and expatriate workers live.
An estimated 10 million Bangladeshis live and work abroad, mostly in the oil-rich Gulf countries and Southeast Asia. The United States and the United Kingdom also a host over a million Bangladeshi diaspora population.
The finance ministry also assured the authorities concerned of making additional allocation for launching the promotional campaigns aboard to lure expatriates into bonds.
An NRB can buy US dollar premium bond worth $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000 and $50,000 and gets up to 7.5 per cent interest.
The rate of return in case of US dollar investment bond is 6.5 per cent and 12 per cent for wage earners' development bond.
There is no upper limit of buying these bonds for the expatriates. The return on these bonds is tax-free.
A senior official at the Ministry of Finance told the FE the government has introduced 2.0 per cent incentives on remittance if it is sent through the banking channel.
This incentive has helped significantly raise remittance inflow, he said.
The official said the government also feels that remitters can invest their hard-earned money in the bonds introduced exclusively for them.
"But many of our expatriates have no idea about the bonds due to the lack of adequate publicity," he said.
"We've decided to make required publicity and even hold road shows to let them know about the bonds and encourage them to invest in those," said the official.
During fiscal year 2018-19, inward remittance hit an all-time high of $16.41 billion, up from $14.98 billion the year before.
syful-islam@outlook.com