Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha noi, Dec. 17 (VNA) -- Overseas Vietnamese has so far this year remitted nearly 2.1 billion USD to their relatives at home, a 17.5 percent year-on-year increase, according to the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV).

Ho Chi Minh City alone has received an estimated 1 billion USD remitted by overseas Vietnamese to their relatives. Particularly, the city saw sharp increases of 28-29 percent in October and November in comparison with September.

Vu Phuong Lien, Director of the Foreign Exchange Management Department of the SBV, said that the remittance from overseas Vietnamese to the home country reached 1.5 billion USD in the first three quarters of this year, 15 percent over the same period last year. Nearly 70 percent of the sum was sent to Viet Nam through banks, and the remainder, through businesses and the postal service. The increase in remittances from overseas Vietnamese has markedly helped make up for the trade deficit, improve the balance of international payment, and stabilise the exchange rate of VND and USD, Lien said.

According to the Dong A foreign exchange company of the Dong A Joint Stock Commercial Bank, the increase in overseas Vietnamese's remittances to the country was mainly attributed to the State policy to attract foreign currencies. Especially the government has permitted more businesses to provide remittance service, thus creating a competitive environment to improve the quality of the service and reduce charge rates.

Dong A company has cooperated with 27 foreign companies in providing remittance service. In the first 11 months of this year, the company paid 372 million USD remitted by overseas Vietnamese in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Germany. It hopes to raise the figure to 400 million USD by the end of this year.

According to commercial banks, this year, almost all remittance recipients have sold their foreign money to banks because the exchange rate between VND and USD remains stable and there is little difference between the prices of the US dollar in banks and the free market. However, they said, overseas Vietnamese would send more money home if some problems in foreign currency remittance were resolved, and the advertisement for this service was promoted.