Manila: An economist said overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) can contribute significantly to the grassroots level if community-based organisations can tap even one per cent of the annual OFW remittances amounting to over P5 billion (Dh360 million).
In his research paper Enhancing the impact of OFWs remittances on local communities: Role of local government units, Dr Tereso Tullao Jr of De La Salle University-Manila said such organisations such as the cooperatives must make it attractive to the people to entice them to invest in them.
"The potential impact of OFWs remittances on the community can be fully realised only if OFWs and their dependent households can be convinced to assign a portion of their remittances to community-based organisations like cooperatives on a regular basis," said Tullao.
"Such attraction, in turn, will depend on cooperatives' reliability and stability as financial institutions," he added.
Tullao said local government units (LGUs), non-government organisations (NGOs) and the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) will have to draft strict guidelines for efficient management of cooperatives.
