With approximately six million Vietnamese nationals living abroad, remittances sent to Vietnam from 1993 to 2022 have amounted to US$190 billion, according to deputy foreign minister Lê Thị Thu Hằng.
Deputy foreign minister Lê Thị Thu Hằng speaks at the press conference on Monday. —Photo baotintuc.vn
Speaking at a press conference for the 2024 “Xuân quê hương” (Homeland Spring) programme on Monday, she said that this figure is almost equal to the amount of foreign investment capital disbursed in the same period.
In 2023, the World Bank estimated that Vietnam received approximately $14 billion in remittances, while this figure reached a record number of $19 billion in 2022.
Vietnam has been among the global top 10 recipients of remittances for many years, with overseas Vietnamese residing in more than 130 countries and territories, and around 600,000 of them with an undergraduate or higher degree.
More than 80 per cent of overseas Vietnamese are living in industrial and developed countries and major global economic hubs.In HCM City, the amount of remittances topped $9 billion in 2023, an increase of 35 per cent compared to the previous year and equivalent to nearly 50 per cent of the city’s total budget revenue.
This figure is also nearly three times the total foreign investment capital the city received.
However, deputy foreign minister Hằng emphasised that the focus is to promote intellectual and human resources for the country’s development.
Statistics showed that the number of overseas Vietnamese intellectuals and experts engaging in science-technology activities in Vietnam ranges from 300 to 500 people per year.
Võ Văn Hoan, vice chairman of HCM City People’s Committee said that Vietnam and particularly HCM City have put forward strategies to attract and mobilise resources from overseas Vietnamese, with the aim of becoming a centre for the semiconductor industry, science-technology and innovation of the region and the world.