Brussels, 27/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Money sent back home by migrants to their countries of origin is said to be manna of a forgotten kind. What is more, there is neither security nor framework for such transfers which remain without effect on the development of these countries that are so poor they are forced to send their labour force abroad. Such is the message that the European Investment Bank (EIB) sent to the Mediterranean partner countries on the occasion of a conference in Paris on this subject, on 23 March, where the spadework was accomplished. Participants included the EIB vice-president, Philippe de Fontaine Vive, representatives from the Mediterranean banking world including central bank governors and representatives from banking federations and international organisations (OECD, African Development Bank, etc.). Senior officials from member state ministries for the economy and finance and from the European Commission also attended.
This “forgotten manna” in the world was evaluated, in 2005, at over $232 billion. Immigrants from Mediterranean countries alone transfer between €12.4 and €13.6 billion each year to their families. According to a study carried out before the conference, such transfers exceed foreign direct investment (€6.5 billion). Algerian migrants (estimated at 1.2 million, of whom 95% are in France) transferred back to their countries over €1.5 billion annually during the period covered by the study (1996-2003), essentially by unofficial means. These figures would indicate the need, the EIB stresses, to provide a framework for such transfers and, in passing, to use them to contribute to the development of the countries of origin.
The aim is to transform this flow of money. The person transferring funds to his homeland would gain when it comes to cost and security. Intermediary bodies - banks in this instance - would earn a new basis for cooperation between them, allowing them to create conditions for successful use of the flow of migrants' money to finance development in the countries of origin. Three areas of priority action have been identified: transparency of the market for transfers often operated in informal circuits, the modernisation of the banking sector of the countries of origin, and a systematic partnership between banks in the North and those in the South, as well as, finally, strengthening of the link between financial transfers and investment. In order to achieve these goals, the EIB considers that the Euro-Mediterranean facility for investment and partnership (FEMIP) could play a useful role by offering technical assistance. It could also, with its venture capital, promote the mobilisation of local saving by migrants in favour of investment. There is experience of this in Turkey especially but also in Morocco and to a lesser extent in Tunisia. Algeria is said to be attentive to this in its current development movement. As things stand, mobilised investment is reported to go more towards the acquisition of housing than towards production sectors. The strengthening of the banking sector and the diversification of financial products could correct this tendency that the EIB would like to support through its expertise, its credit and also because, de facto, it would become the Euro-Mediterranean Development Bank. This should be highlighted as it coincides with the pressing demand of partner countries, recently supported by the EuroMed Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) to evolve towards the creation of such a bank with joint status. The EIB is not any more inclined to accept this transformation than the European Commission, although the cost and operating capacity arguments do not appear to dissuade the countries and parliamentarians that are calling for such a system. (fb)