Socialist Republic of Vietnam

HCM CITY — Members of the overseas Vietnamese community have defied economists’ predictions and are visiting Viet Nam for Tet (Lunar New Year) in much greater numbers than expected, said an official.

The acting head of the Department for Community Research and General Work at the Overseas Vietnamese Committee, Tran Van Thinh said that the arrivals were expected to at least equal last year’s figure of 360,000, despite an uncertain world situation that had prompted economists to predict a big drop in visiting Viet kieu this year.

Thinh, who has just finished his diplomatic mission in San Francisco, home to the largest Vietnamese community in the United States, estimated that visiting Vietnamese-Americans would number 200,000 this Tet, over half the overall total. Overseas Vietnamese are also using the occasion to seek out investment opportunities, said the vice chairman of the HCM City Committee on Overseas Vietnamese, Nguyen Viet Thuan.

Investments from Viet kieu in HCM City doubled last year despite a sharp drop in foreign investments, Thuan said. Their remittances through municipal bank services also surged to an estimated US$1 billion.

Thuan said many Viet kieu had expressed curiosity about Viet Nam’s investment incentive law, especially provisions for equality between overseas Vietnamese and domestic business circles.

The Committee also reported increasing numbers of Viet kieu researchers involved in technological projects in HCM City’s high-tech zone or universities.

To further tap this potential, the Committee on Overseas Vietnamese plans to allow the opening of overseas Vietnamese-run universities.

Recent legal reform relating to Viet kieu has won over some who were reluctant to visit their homeland, said Thuan. He added that 30 per cent of Viet kieu who have arrived at HCM City for Tet were returning for the first time.

Many returning Viet kieu have positive impressions of Viet Nam’s development.

Tran Randy Cao from the US said "I left my coastal village in Da Nang 23 years ago in a state of extreme poverty, so the feeling of deep regret and sadness used to bite my heart over the years. So it’s surprising to see that the village has undergone such rapid and great change. My former poor Catholic parish which suffered from vast wasted land is now a town where an inch of land is as worthy as gold."

Nguyen Sy lived for 11 years in the US but has now returned to live in Hue for good. He had visited Viet Nam eight times and said that on each visit he was surprised at the fast improvements in both material and spiritual life.

"Only back here can people know exactly that east or west, home is best," he said.

On Thursday HCM City authorities were said to officially award several overseas groups and individuals for their contributions to the city’s development efforts, Thuan said. — VNS