With reference to the article "Experts: Citizens to blame for jump in expat remittances" by Adel Babkair (Dec. 6), one remedy to curb remittances of expats is to change some government policies. Are there incentives for expats to invest in Saudi Arabia? Almost everyday hatred for expats is rising. I dont think the remittance will drop any time soon, unless you let the highly skilled class live without fear and allow them to do business which would create thousand of jobs along the way. A good public relations would be needed for this to work. An expat, Online response II.
Do foreigners come here to invest and save their money in the bank? The ideas of the so-called experts are a bit confusing. One idea said that an expat can't work on his own business in the Kingdom and had to work as an employee instead. If he works as an employee, why and how should he invest his money here? Just let him save in the bank? Then what? At the end of the day when he leaves the Kingdom, he has lost the money he worked for? An expat comes here to work and to help improve the life of his family back home. You cannot expect an expat to spend all his money here. What if the next day his employer ends his employment, what will happen to him and his family if he had spent most —if not all — of his money here or his savings in the bank are gone? Abdulkareem, Online response III. One solution is to create investment opportunities for expats. Requiring expats to open bank accounts to monitor their cash flow will not prevent them from remitting all their hard-earned salaries to their home countries. As an expat, why should I keep my money in Saudi Arabia if there are no opportunities here to make my money grow? What the Saudi government should do is to create a special investment program that will encourage foreign workers to put in some of their earnings here in the Kingdom. Joey, Online response IV. Give us chance to spend money here by allowing us to set up legitimate businesses instead of the cover-up ones. Then allow our families to join us here. This will also help raise revenue for the government instead of making a lazy sponsor or kafeel earn from a business he doesn't know how to operate. Ashref, Online response VI. The remittances of the workers who later run their own businesses here is only part of the huge cash flow sent by expatriates to their home countries. The main cause is the remittances of expatriate workers to their families. And rightly so. They came here to give their families comfortable lives. The Philippine government, in fact, encourages Filipino workers to send their money back home to support their families and at the same time aid the economy. Hard work, love for their families and a sense of patriotism make them send their hard-earned money back home. This explains the huge remittances of expatriates to their home countries. You don't have to be an expert to know this. Denver, Online response
