Given the substantial amount of remittances coming into the region annually, the US government is considering implementing a system of leverage where some of fees charged can go directly towards specific aspects of development in the various territories.
Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy Karen Williams, during a recent interview with this newspaper, said discussions on the matter were ongoing but stressed that the intention is not to reduce the amount of money that a family would receive. She underscored the importance of remittances in the region and noted that many families survive on these funds.
However, according to the Chargé d’Affaires, there have been talks about how they could take advantage of this large inflow of cash into the region to aid in its development. “One of the ideas of the things we can do working with the regions is to find ways to leverage the monies coming back, the remittances…[but] not reducing the amounts going to particular families or anything,” she said. According to her, there are ways to leverage some of the fees and other amounts persons wind up having to pay to be used for infrastructural projects or for credit for development.
Williams noted that the initiative was a relatively new concept although it had been spoken of before. She said too that discussions are still in the initial stages and that systems would vary from country to country. She, however, stressed that the main idea is to use the fees that are already charged on remittances to benefit the wider society in some way.
The Chargé d’Affaires noted that about $50 billion comes into the hemisphere annually via remittances. According to a report from the Migration Policy Institute, formal remittances to Guyana during last year were estimated to be approximately US$266 million. Almost 90 percent of this amount is said to have come from North America. A report from released from the IDB pegged remittances to Guyana last year at a slightly higher figure of US$320 million.
