Majority of migrants in Davao City are interested to invest their remittances in business.
Maria Angela Villalba, executive director of non-government organization Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation, said a research conducted on migrants of Davao City showed that 82 percent of migrants in Davao City are willing to invest a maximum of P5 million and a minimum of P10,000, and a typical (median and mode) investment of P100,000 in business.
Nevertheless, she said result of the study showed that only 29 percent of the migrants invested part of the savings. Most of those who are into business have invested in farming, others in agri-business and micro enterprises and lending activities while some gained reasonable profits, others reported a failure or poor performances of their businesses.
Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Villalba said there are about 32,196 migrants in Davao City. This is equivalent to a monthly flow of about P321.9 million into Davao City in remittances and P3.86 billion remittances annually. The five top destinations of Davao City migrants are: Japan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates, and USA.
She said the research was aimed at providing some indicators to help migrants take stock of their remittances and make financial decisions. It is also aimed at determining their capacity to invest, and at the same time serves as a guide to the city government and other public, private and non-government organization sectors in helping migrants to engage in entrepreneurship.
The migrants also came up with some business-related recommendations, among others, provide business opportunities for OFWs to encourage migrants to invest in the city, establish Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) business associations, fast and easy processing of business permits, improve political and business climate.
Villalba said the study served as a benchmarking for other localities to do similar research in the future.
She said the foundation finds it significant to be aware of the bright side of a migrant's life like their huge remittances and their capability to become investors rather than merely focus on the dark side like the many abuses, which most migrants encounter in their respective areas of deployment.
On the other hand, Villalba said the same study showed that about 53 percent had no experience in business.
She said reasons for the failure and poor performance include inability to collect debts, lack of trustworthy managers and staff, lack of capital, and lack of experience, the study showed.
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