(VOVworld) – With more than 4 million people in over 100 countries, the overseas Vietnamese community is considered by the Party and State an inseparable part of the nation. They are also considered a valuable labor force for Vietnam’s modernization and industrialization process. Overseas Vietnamese people help to cement friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and their countries of residence.

Attracting overseas remittances and investment

Vietnam’s overseas remittances have increased considerably in recent years. Overseas Vietnamese from the US, Canada, Australia, Russia, and the Netherlands have invested in 51 of the 63 provinces and cities in Vietnam with more than 3,600 businesses capitalized at 8.6 billion USD. Most of the projects focus on trade, tourism, construction, real estate, the production of export items, and fisheries. Many overseas Vietnamese have brought large investment projects to Vietnam as they are the main shareholders in a number of major banks and groups in Vietnam such as Techcombank, VPbank, Vingroup, Melinh Plaza Eurowindow, and Masan.

Overseas remittances have helped Vietnam to stabilize its economy. Vietnam attracted a record high of 11 billion USD in overseas remittances in 2013, becoming one of the top 9 countries with the highest amount of overseas remittances in the world. Deputy Foreign Minister and head of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs Nguyen Thanh Son says: “The Party Politburo released resolution 36 on overseas Vietnamese 10 years ago. The resolution considers them an important source of strength for Vietnam’s political, economic, and cultural life.”

VOV leaders meeting overseas Vietnamese

Making the most of overseas Vietnamese intelligentsia

The contributions of overseas Vietnamese have been acknowledged in all aspects of life. It is estimated that approximately 400,000 overseas Vietnamese have undergone university education or beyond and many of them are highly skilled workers. Deputy Foreign Minister Son says: “We should develop incentives and strategies to encourage overseas Vietnamese scholars, intellectuals and scientists to contribute to the homeland. We are proposing to the government a project to further attract overseas Vietnamese to work in agriculture, education, culture, and healthcare.”

Making the most of overseas Vietnamese resources

The overseas Vietnamese community is an important factor in helping Vietnam to expand friendship and cooperation with other countries and to implement its foreign policy of multilateral and diversified relations. Deputy Foreign Minister Son says that mechanisms, orientations and thinking are the 3 core issues that need to be settled in order to gain the trust of overseas Vietnamese.

“We need more open policies and the support of local governments for overseas Vietnamese investors. There should be preferential policies for projects fully invested by overseas Vietnamese.”