The Global Human Development Report suggests Bangladesh set up a remittance bank for easy and transparent inflow of the foreign wage earnings into the country.

"Remittance banks can be set up in countries where the remittance flows are large, such as Bangladesh, Jordan and the Philippines," according to the report.

The report was released in Dhaka yesterday to present the country's position in the Human Development Index.

Bangladesh moved three notches up and ranked 139th out of 188 countries in the Global Human Development Index.

"Easy and transparent legal remittance-sending mechanisms can be instituted in consultation with host countries. And digital remittance transfers can be modelled after M-Pesa and BKash," the report said.

BKash, a mobile banking system in Bangladesh, has changed the way poor people transfer money, including remittances by garment workers, bill payments and the purchase of daily necessities, according to the report.

Selim Jahan, director of the Human Development Report Office of the UN and the lead author of the HDR 2016, presented the key findings of the report at a programme at the planning ministry.

The General Economics Division of Planning Commission and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bangladesh jointly organised the event.

In 2016, remittances to developing countries—a lifeline for many societies—were expected to reach $442 billion, the report said.

Remittances enter through various channels (not all legal) for a raft of purposes, from pure consumption to education and asset purchases, including land, according to the report. "But the transfer costs are steep, averaging nearly 8 percent worldwide to send $200 internationally in 2015."

Consolidating and streamlining remittances could make them a funding source for human development priorities, it said.

An estimated $1 trillion flows illegally out of developing and emerging economies each year, more than these economies receive in foreign direct investment and official development assistance.

"Beyond depriving the world's needy countries, this propels crime, corruption and tax evasion. Most of the money is lost through trade invoicing -- changing prices to secretly move money across borders," the report reads.

"If exporting and importing countries collaborate to monitor invoicing through trade rules and other mechanisms, such flows can be identified and seized."

Referring women empowerment, the report said Grameen Bank is a leading experience in Bangladesh, where groups of destitute women helped empower individual woman economically and socially, which individual efforts might not have achieved.

The report also praised Bangladesh's Rural Employment Opportunities for Public Assets programme, female participation in the workforce and Brac's contribution to the education and other social services.