Overseas - key source of national economic development

According to the HCM City Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, more than 2.5 million Vietnamese people are living abroad, about 80 percent of them in developed industrial countries.

Thanks to open policies of the Party and State, the overseas Vietnamese community has played an increasingly vital role in the domestic economy, strengthening national solidarity among Vietnamese people. They are streaming back to their homeland to contribute to the national construction process.

During the lunar New Year (Tet) occasion, thousands of overseas Vietnamese returned to the homeland, 100,000 people in 2000, 300,000 in 2003, and around 400,000 in 2004. There is an increasingly volume of overseas remittance pouring into Vietnam to help develop the local economy. The money remitted to the country by overseas Vietnamese people reached between US$700 million and US$1 billion in 2000. The figure was up to US$1.754 billion in 2001, US$2.154 billion in 2002, and US$2.7 billion in 2003, an increase of 20 percent over the previous year and three times higher than 2000.

Over the past three years, remittance by overseas Vietnamese via official channels was estimated at more than US$6.6 billion, doubling the hard currency received from foreign investment over the 2001-2003 period.

HCM City is the largest recipient of overseas Vietnamese remittance, receiving 60 percent of the total. The city received around US$1.6 billion in 2003, an increase of 59 percent over 2002. Three leading banks in transferring overseas remittances include the East Asia Bank, Sacombank and Exombank, accounting for nearly 50 percent of all overseas Vietnamese remittance.

Since 2000, around US$6.6 billion from overseas Vietnamese sources was channelled through formal channels, such as banks and customs services. Overseas Vietnamese also sent money to relatives and friends through telecom networks and by hand. As amounts less than US$3,000 do not need to be declared at customs when people enter the country, the actual volume of overseas remittance could have been more than US$2.7 billion in 2003.

Overseas Vietnamese have actively contributed to domestic economic development by investing in business operations in Vietnam. According to the Overseas Vietnamese Committee under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by the end of last year, overseas Vietnamese had set up 1,274 projects, with total registered capital of around US$710 million. The State Bank of Vietnam’s Foreign Currency Management Department estimated that remittance from overseas Vietnamese could reach US$3.5 billion in 2004 via official channels, bringing total remittance to US$10 billion in the 2001-2004 period.

According to Vice Chairman of the Overseas Vietnamese Committee, Nguyen Chien Thang, overseas Vietnamese are looking towards their homeland and helping the country in national construction and development. They are grateful to the Vietnamese Party and Government for encouragement and open policies. They are also now allowed to buy houses and hold land use rights in the country.

Dr. Nguyen Chanh Khe, a Vietnamese who has been living in Japan for 15 years and 30 years in the US, expressed his wish to invest in domestic business. Khe, who was awarded great honour in the US for his 35 information technology inventions and another 30 in Japan, said, "Living in a prosperous environment in a foreign country is not meaningful, so I decided to use money to invest in domestic business".

Prof. Tu Trung Chan, who owns two electronics companies in China and the US, is now also operating in Vietnam. He said, "The labour force in Vietnam has advantages for enterprises. I will export 60-70 percent of my products to earn more hard currency for the nation".

Sharing common ideas with Dr. Khe and Prof. Chan, many overseas Vietnamese are now returning to the homeland and actively contributing to national economic development.


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Take note that the estimate of $3.5 billion worth of remittance is through official channels, if including unofficial channels, this could well be over that by far.

My dear NQSH,

These sure sound like propaganda to me! It did not offer truth and fact! How can I dispute the greatness of this article!? I work in the industry! Stupid!!

Furthermore, I am not grateful to any sadistic, communist party or state!

Please, do not impose your ignorance on other's intelligence.

Vietnamese quote: "Cóc ngồi đáy giếng, nghĩ trời bằng vung"

The Goverment needs to realized that 3/4 of Vietnamese Oversea are not immigrants, they are war refugee . Why do the goverment rely too much on vietnamese overseas? Sure, they can help out, but the thing is not all vietnamese overseas are rich, and generous.
I can see the double standard of being "Oversea Vietnamese". We're not only oversea vietnamese, we are american, canadian, australian etc.

Well Vietnamese are the largest Asian ethnic group in Germany or Berlin at least according to the article below.(Finally a Western country where Vietnamese outnumber Chinese).

West Vietnamese Germans are more integrated into German society and get benefits from the German government to stay and to study and 60,000 Vietnamese illegal immigrants were allowed to stay.

But East Vietnamese Germans tend to be out there selling cigarettes and are looked down by West Vietnamese Germans, since Germany used to be divided into West and East Germany and the Vietnamese immigrants on both sides had some rivalry and crap.

http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,,1432_A_1047447_1_A,00.html

I could see East Vietnamese Germans wanting to go to Vietnam, but West Vietnamese Germans like their better jobs as doctors,professors and crap in Germany and would rather live in Germany I guess.

Yes there are occassional racist attacks on Vietnamese there, but at least it is way better than living in Cambodia. And Germans allowed Vietnamese to live in Germany while other South East Asian countries refused those people.

Thnx for hitting right on the head of the nail that seals the coffin!

Not only they (the VN commies) use double standard on the VN expatriates, they also use double tounge and double blade.

We, as citizens of democratic societies, always learn to love our countrymen; but we are intelligent enough to distinguish the rudimentary propaganda that runs rampant in low-life commie states.