REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The amount of remittances sent home by Indonesian migrant workers (TKI) employed overseas during the January-October 2013 period reached Rp73 trillion, Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said.
"The remittance this year is larger than in the same period in the previous year, which stood at Rp67.87 trillion. The government suggests that workers and their families should use the money for productive endeavors, such as entrepreneurship activities," the minister said in a press statement here on Friday.
He expressed hope that the remittance of TKIs, which had been increasing from year to year, should be used to improve the welfare of Indonesian migrant workers and their families.
The minister considered the large amount of remittances would boost regional economic growth if it is not spent on consumer products, but rather for the development of the local resource-based economy.