THERE IS GROWING CONCERN among Filipinos working abroad on how the global economic downturn would affect them and their work.

Many countries playing host to our migrant workers are now in recession. Reports of workers being laid off have terrified overseas workers and their families here.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pili-pinas (BSP) sees their pressing needs and has decided to act on them.

Amando Tetangco Jr., BSP governor, said promoting financial literacy among overseas Filipino workers and their families is now one of the advocacies of the monetary authority.

Overseas workers should learn about the value of saving and investing, officials said. The workers must be weaned from the practice of devoting their entire income to consumption.

?We want OFWs and their families to become financially sophisticated,? Tetangco said.

According to Tetangco, the BSP started its Financial Literacy Campaign for OFWs in October last year. Since then, central bank officials, together with fund managers from volunteer-banks (including Land Bank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines and Philippine National Bank), have been visiting countries where OFWs are concentrated. There, OFWs are taught how to save and invest their hard-earned money.

Literacy campaign

BSP and bank officials have already gone to various cities in Saudi Arabia and South Korea, apart from Hong Kong and Singapore, to talk to workers there.

The central bank is now preparing for the next leg of the campaign in Italy. Officials are looking at Milan and Rome where there are large concentrations of Filipino workers.

Here in the Philippines, the BSP has also conducted seminars on financial literacy among families of OFWs.

Tetangco said one of the basic things taught to OFWs and their families is to allocate a portion of their incomes to savings and investments.

?Usually, people would only save whatever is left of their income after all expenditures were made,? Tetangco said.

?What we teach them is to spend only what is left of their income after setting aside money for investments and savings.?

Investment outlets

Once the importance of saving and investing have been emphasized, Tetangco said, OFWs and their families are shown the various investment outlets and savings instruments available in the market.

Instruments like savings deposits, time deposits, treasury bills and other government securities, corporate bonds, and equities, among others, are introduced to the audience. They are likewise given ideas on potential businesses that they may venture in, such as franchising, to encourage them to become entrepreneurs.

Promoting entrepreneurship among OFWs and their families will not only help them multiply their income, but also help enhance economic activity in the country.

Diwa Guinigundo, deputy governor at the central bank, said the contributions of OFWs to the economy are huge. Last year, remittances sent by Filipinos working offshore amounted to $16.4 billion. The amount helped boost the country?s reserves of foreign currencies.

Big contribution

Remittances are equivalent to at least 10 percent of the country?s gross domestic product, Guinigundo said.

He added that contributions of OFWs to the economy could be bigger if they were to learn the values of saving and investing.

?The economy may leverage from this big amount of remittances if OFWs and their families are more financially and economically aware. The multiplier effect on the economy is high if such remittances are channeled to savings and investments,? Guinigundo said.

The deputy governor said an increase in savings and investments by OFWs and their families would help generate more jobs, thus raise the overall income level of the economy.

Financial security

?We tell them that they must secure their future and prepare for old age,? Guinigundo said.

OFWs and their families can even become more productive if they save and invest, he said.

Fortunately, Guinigundo said, the call of the BSP for OFWs and their families to save and invest is not falling on deaf ears.

Since the financial literacy campaign started in October last year, Guinigundo said, there has been a considerable increase in the number of OFW families who are allocating money for savings and investments. He said the central bank would continue to encourage more OFWs and their families to do the same.

Prior to the literacy campaign, Guinigundo said, a survey by the central bank showed that only 15 percent of OFW families are allotting a portion of the remittances they receive to savings and investments.

Now, he said, about 32 percent of OFW families are saving and investing.

Information campaign

?This may be an indication that our information campaign is working,? Guinigundo said. ?We will continue this so that more OFW families will enhance their level of financial awareness.?

Lack of employment and income opportunities in the country has forced millions of Filipinos to leave the country and work abroad.

Sociologists said that while remittances sent by OFWs helped in securing the finances of their families, and that of the country as well, the time they spent away from their loved ones came with a steep price.

But according to central bank officials, if OFW households would save and invest more, then family members working abroad would no longer have to spend that much time away from their loved ones.

Soon, income from their investments would become large enough to sustain their families? needs, and this would allow the workers to go back home earlier than they expected.