Top Leader Urges More Support from Overseas Vietnamese

Top Leader Urges More Support from Overseas Vietnamese

Vietnam needs more contribution and brainpower from Vietnamese living abroad, regardless of their background or their past, said Prime Minister Phan Van Khai in a year-end party at Reunification Hall in Ho Chi Minh City on January 30. 

Overseas Vietnamese (locally known as Viet Kieu) are an inseparable part of the Vietnamese community, Khai affirmed at the get-together with the participation of 600 expatriate Vietnamese, including vice president of the former Saigon regime Nguyen Cao Ky, to celebrate the upcoming traditional Lunar New Year.

They should help their homeland in the current fight against poverty and backwardness, he added.

Rising investment and remittances sent back to Vietnam by overseas Vietnamese in 2004 reflected that the expatriates’ hearts and minds are directed towards the country, said Nguyen Chon Trung, chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs.

The recent visits by the Most Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh and Mr. Nguyen Cao Ky have shown that Vietnamese people would never forget their origins no matter how far they are from home, Trung highlighted.

The Prime Minister also urged expatriates to heighten solidarity among the overseas Vietnamese community.

In the gathering, overseas Vietnamese asked the government to fast-track entry and exit visas for experts and provide them better access to real estate property in Vietnam.

If possible, the government should allow overseas Vietnamese to collect their visas on arrival at Vietnam’s airports, said Phan Thanh, chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Association of Overseas Vietnamese Enterprises. It will encourage more expatriates to visit the country, he said.

Although the government has created more favorable conditions for overseas Vietnamese to buy a home in the country, in fact, access to houses still remains a problem for expatriates, Thanh said.

Some provinces are yet to have clear instructions on the government’s housing policies for overseas Vietnamese, so there is still a long wait involved for experts to obtain a house in Vietnam, he said. 

In 2004, total overseas Vietnamese investment into Ho Chi Minh City hit VND630 billion (US$40 million), a rise of 108 per cent over 2003, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs. Their money sent back to the city in the form of remittances reached US$1.84 billion, accounting for 60 per cent of the total remittances to the country that year.

Some 400,000 overseas Vietnamese visited the city last year, of whom 50,000 enjoyed last traditional Lunar New Year.
(The People, Labour)