HCM City received USD6.1 billion in overseas remittances last year, up 12% on-year, said Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of State Bank Ho Chi Minh City Branch.
According to Minh, this was impressive growth given the context of the on-going Covid-19 pandemic.This year, many Vietnamese people abroad did not return home for Tet Holiday, which is among reasons for HCM City’s recent sharp increase.
The latest estimates published in the World Bank (WB)’s Migration and Development Brief late last year showed that remittances to Vietnam were estimated to have fallen by over 7% to USD15.7 billion, equivalent to 5.8% of GDP.
In spite of the drop, Vietnam still remained among the global leading remittance recipients in 2020, standing in ninth place.
The US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korea have remained the biggest sources of remittances to Vietnam.
Vietnam News Agency cited Ambassador Luong Thanh Nghi, vice chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese as saying that more than 5.3 million Vietnamese were living in 130 countries and territories. The overseas Vietnamese business community includes at least 6,000 members connected to Vietnam via technology and business fields.
He spoke highly of the significant contributions made by overseas Vietnamese businesses to the country’s socio-economic development, especially during the hard times of the pandemic.
“Overseas Vietnamese businesses are key to national socio-economic development,” he said. “Remittances to Vietnam have reached about USD170 billion from 1990 to now.”
Overseas Vietnamese have invested in 3,000 projects with total registered capital of more than USD4 billion, creating many jobs, Nghi noted.
