COLOMBO, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka has taken steps to establish housing projects exclusively for expatriate workers, officials said on Tuesday.
Jointly implemented by the Bureau of Foreign Employment and the National Housing Development Authority, these projects will see the construction of urban condominiums and rural single housing units to meet the needs of expatriate workers, said the country's Minister of Labor and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara.
A survey on the housing needs of expatriate workers will start from May 22 onwards to boost remittances by providing incentives to workers.
The information is expected to be collected within two weeks and the survey is scheduled to be conducted through the development officers assigned to all the divisional secretariats, Sri Lankan foreign missions and through the official website of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, Nanayakkara said.
Migrant workers' remittances are one of the main sources of foreign revenues for Sri Lanka, with workers remitting over 1.8 billion U.S. dollars in the first four months of 2023. ■
