Intervention by H. E. Dr. a. K. Abdul Momen, Ambassador and Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations at the event: Migration and Development :Defining the Role of Migration in the Post-­‐2015 Development Agenda 17 December 2014, Conference Room 8, UNHQ

Intervention by H. E. Dr. a. K. Abdul Momen, Ambassador and Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations at the event: Migration and Development :Defining the Role of Migration in the Post-­‐2015 Development Agenda 17 December 2014, Conference Room 8, UNHQ

Excellencies , Distinguished panelists and participants,

I thank the panelists for their thought provoking presentations.

Bangladesh now has over eight and half million Bangladeshis living the world over. A sizable majority of them are migrant workers. On an average, we have been receiving remittance through official channel worth over 14 billion US Dollars. That amounts to around 13% of Bangladesh GDP.During financial crisis such remittances kept our economy growing.The manifold economic and social impact of remittance on the household or their families in Bangladesh is significant . Remittance continues to transform the lives of millions as it ensures access to nutritious food, schooling, healthcare, electricity, better housing, sanitation, safe drinking water and better living.

In the global discourse, Bangladesh remains actively engaged to secure both migration governance and rights of migrants, their rightful place within the global development agenda. Bangladesh has been closely involved to advance migration across the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Migration enjoys considerable visibility in the SDG targets whereas it had no place in the MDGs. The specific and migration-relevant targets would help to secure the interests of the migrants and recognize the role of migration across development discourse. The global community should come forward to minimizing the cost of migration and remittance as part of the SDGs.

Migration must be supported by a balanced, cooperative and equitable system that is safe, fair, humane and more beneficial for all. The system must promote participation of all migrants in decision-making processes. Governance of migration would lead to promote matching of skills and jobs as well as labour supply and demand between countries, including through creating regular channels for migration. Economic policies should be framed in such a manner that helps better utilize migration remittance. Mainstreaming migration into the national development policies holds a key to give migration institutional support to work more effectively as an enabler of development. There is an urgent need to ensure financial inclusion of migrants and provide incentives to save and invest in productive sectors. At the same time, promotion of strategy to enable, engage and empower diaspora and their entrepreneurship holds importance. Effective regulation of labour recruitment agencies and incentivisation of cost-effective channels of remittance would eventually facilitate economic growth and social well being .

Dear participants,

By now, many of you might be aware that Bangladesh would host the 9th Global Forum on Migration and Development in 2016 .Bangladesh’s active role and commitment to the cause of migrants entrusted us with this responsibility by the global community. Bangladesh looks forward to hosting the GFMD upon adoption of post- 2015 Development agenda , where global experts, governments, civil society, policy-makers converge and reflect on contemporary and potential shape and course of migration, and which would provide the global community with an opportunity to flag our perspectives on the challenges as well as the ways to address those. We also attach significant importance to holding the High Level Dialogues on migration on a regular basis under the United Nations umbrella.

Tomorrow is the International Migration Day, and Bangladesh will observe it not only in the country but also all it’s Missions across the globe. The message of all these events would be that we want “Safe Migration”, we want “migration with dignity”, and we want to ensure rights of migrants in the post 2015 development agenda.

I thank you all.