MANILA – Henry Sy and other Filipino-Chinese businessmen are reaping the benefits of the money sent home by overseas Filipino workers, the National Statistical Coordination Board said on Friday.

Jose Ramon Albert, NSCB secretary-general, said the contribution of the OFWs to the Philippine economy is ‘extremely significant, and certainly provided a mechanism for sustaining the country’s growth.’

In 2011 alone, OFW remittances amounted to $20.11 billion or P871.25 billion, equivalent to 6.8 percent of gross national income for the year. 

‘Henry Sy and a number of our Filipino Chinese taipans have been big beneficiaries of such increased household final consumption expenditure,’ Albert said.

Sy owns the country’s biggest shopping mall developer, SM Prime Holdings Inc., as well as the fastest-growing condominium developer, SM Development Corp. Another Filipino-Chinese businessman, Lucio Co, owns the country’s second largest supermarket chain, Puregold Price Club Inc.

The number of OFWs jumped to 1.47 million in 2010 from only 36,035 in 1995, according to NSCB data. In 2011, the total number of OFWs rose 15.4 percent, with the land- and sea-based workers showing a spread of 19.5 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively. 

With a population of 94.2 million in 2011, the Philippine economy expanded at a growth rate of 4.7 percent annually from 2000 to 2011.

Net primary income from abroad had a share of 17.2 percent in 2000, escalating to 32.6 percent in 2010 and 31.7 percent in 2011. On the average, GNI grew by 5.8 percent from 2000 to 2011.