In recent years, in spite of the global economic downturn, investment by overseas Vietnamese, or Viet Kieu, has kept going up in both value and scale and is playing a more important role in the country’s socioeconomic development.
Currently, a majority of overseas Vietnamese-run companies investing in Vietnam are headquartered in the United States, Canada, Australia, Russia, France, the Netherlands and Czech Republic. Viet Kieu in the US is the largest combined investor in Vietnam. According to the State Commission on Overseas Vietnamese, Viet Kieu has invested in 51 out of 63 provinces and cities in the country with more than 3,600 companies capitalised at US$8.6 billion. They are mainly engaged in trade, tourism, construction, real estate, export-driven manufacturing, aquatic farming, processing and exporting.
Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Thanh Son, Chairman of the State Commission on Overseas Vietnamese, said mobilising resources of overseas Vietnamese for economic development has produced positive results. Inward remittances are an important financial source for the country. In the latest five years, this value of overseas remittances kept rising 10-15 per cent a year and reached US$10.5 billion in 2012, making Vietnam one of the seven largest recipients of overseas remittances in the world. In addition, Viet Kieu also invested some US$6 billion in more than 2,000 projects and more than US$3 billion brought to Vietnam in unofficial way. Thus, Viet Keu sends some US$20 billion to Vietnam a year, a very important resource for the country’s development.
Not only contributing money to the country’s economic development, Viet Kieu entrepreneurs also serve as a bridge for domestic businesspeople to contact foreign trade organisations and businesses. They help expand the global presence, enhance the quality, and boost the brand name of Vietnamese goods.
Currently, Vietnamese communities in many countries have established distribution networks and bring Vietnamese products into these systems, helping Vietnamese products penetrate into foreign markets. Big places that sell Vietnamese goods include Rainbow Trade Centre (Ukraine), Vietnam Trade Centre in Maryland (US) and a number of other trade centres in Europe (Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, etc.), Asia (Laos, Cambodia, etc.)
Explaining why Viet Kieu is keener on investment in the fatherland, Bui Dinh Dinh, Vice President and Secretary General of Overseas Vietnamese Business Association, said, apart from geographic advantage, Vietnam also possesses numerous advantages for drawing external investment capital into various sectors, especially service and tourism. Additionally, Vietnam’s investment regime is quite easygoing, labour costs are low, skilled workers are abundant and industrious. To Hoai Nam, Vice President of the Vietnam Small and Medium Enterprises Association, said, Viet Kieu entrepreneurs supplement management experience and technology when they invest in Vietnam, thus helping enhance competitive advantages for Vietnamese enterprises.
Viet Kieu’s contributions to Vietnam’s economic development are undeniable. However, Tran Hoa Phuong, Vice Chairman of the Overseas Vietnamese Committee in HCM City said, despite their burning enthusiasm to return the fatherland, their activities are faced with numerous difficulties, mainly related to tax and land incentives and administrative procedures. For that reason, the Government should have policies to remove difficulties and to facilitate Viet Kieu business community to stabilise investment, production and business activities to contribute more to the homeland.
Thanh Tung
Vietnamese
