DHAKA, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Non-resident Bangladeshis, living and working in over 100 foreign countries, sent home nearly 11 billion U.S. dollars in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year 2017-18 ending in June this year, central bank data showed Wednesday.

According to the provisional Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, Bangladesh received 10.76 billion U.S. dollars in remittances during the July- March period of the fiscal 2017-18 (July 2017- June 2018), which is about 17 percent higher over the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

The remittances from Bangladeshis in March this year were 1.30 billion U.S. dollars, up by 151.46 million U.S. dollars from that of the previous month, the bank data showed.

Bangladeshi Minister of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Nurul Islam has announced the government's plan to send some 1.2 million Bangladeshis abroad with overseas employment this year.

Remittances, which account for around 11 percent of the country's GDP, mainly come from countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea, among others.