December 28, 2002	Saturday	Shawwal 23, 1423

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 27: A record increase in remittances from Kuwait has been noted during the financial year 2001-2002, crossing the figure at $89.66 million as compared to $26.40 million for the year 2000-2001.

The remittance from Kuwait has been kept on increasing and according to the statistics available to Dawn it shot up to $87 million for the current financial year 2002-2003 for the period July-Nov 2002. Economists are of the view if the current increase in remittance was going on with the same pace, the remittances from Kuwait may reach to $200 million.

The increase in remittances from Kuwait was witnessed after the 9/11 events, when Pakistanis living in Kuwait turned to the legal channels due to the fear of possible links with Al Qaeda. Kuwaiti government has also taken hard steps to check for the illegal flow of money from Kuwait.

Pakistan embassy in Kuwait was also playing a vital role in boosting the remittances. While talking to Dawn ambassador Shafkat Saeed said the embassy has formed a committee to give incentives, to those Pakistanis who are channelling their money through legal ways. He said the efforts were focused on low paid members of the Pakistan community.

He said President Musharraf’s government was justified in taking pride of its successful financial polices and reserves management, which in a way greatly helped restoring the confidence of the non-resident Pakistanis.

“Currently, the insignificant margin between official and the unofficial rates of rupee against dollar, stronger strength of the reserves, and improved health of the rupee altogether brought a positive effect on home remittances which, have consistently gone upward”, the ambassador added.