The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the Middle East Regional Technical Assistance Center (METAC) are organizing a workshop for balance of payments compilers of METAC and Gulf countries, specifically dedicated to the compilation of workers remittances. The workshop will be hosted by the Central Bank of Jordan, in Amman, on April 24–25, 2013 and it will be conducted in English with Arabic interpretation.
A previous workshop had been organized for METAC member countries in November 2011, in Beirut, to compare national data on remittances with data from partner countries. While this exercise was already very informative in identifying possible causes of asymmetries, it appeared that most of the participating countries are receivers, rather than senders, of remittances and that further insight could be gained from a new workshop with the participation of Gulf Countries, where most of the remittances to the METAC area originate from.