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The paper presents a brief overview of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on remittance flows in Asia-Pacific. The study discusses the importance of lowering the remittances transfer fees for migrant households and remittance-dependent economies in Asia and the Pacific in the time of the ongoing 2020 economic crisis. The paper presents discrepancies in remittance transfer fees between remittance transfer corridors in the region with respect to technologies used and analyses major barriers for digital finance spread across Asia-Pacific. The paper concludes with a set of policy recommendations which would decrease remittance transfer fees towards SDG10 target of less than 3 per cent, thus improve the situation of migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the years to follow.

The paper presents a brief overview of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on remittance flows in Asia-Pacific. The study discusses the importance of lowering the remittances transfer fees for migrant households and remittance-dependent economies in Asia and the Pacific in the time of the ongoing 2020 economic crisis. The paper presents discrepancies in remittance transfer fees between remittance transfer corridors in the region with respect to technologies used and analyses major barriers for digital finance spread across Asia-Pacific. The paper concludes with a set of policy recommendations which would decrease remittance transfer fees towards SDG10 target of less than 3 per cent, thus improve the situation of migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the years to follow.

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