Fund seeks to boost links with Viet kieu
HA NOI — A 10-month old fund was playing an active role attracting Viet kieu (overseas Vietnamese) back to Viet Nam, but the fund’s director noted many Viet kieu are discouraged by difficulties buying houses here.
The Community Support Fund, established last April by the foreign ministry with initial funding of VND7 billion (US$448,000), targets overseas Vietnamese living around the world, said fund’s director Nguyen Van Trung.
Last year, the fund sponsored Professor Hoang Trong Pho, an overseas Vietnamese employed at the France-based Global Physics Institute, to install radar equipment to record and predict earth tremors in different areas of the country, a vital service for major infrastructure projects.
Fund director Trung cited an upcoming summer programme to provide 60 Viet kieu children with holidays at resorts across the country, with around VND500 million ($32,000) set aside to give the children of Vietnamese origin a chance to meet with their peers in Viet Nam.
However, Trung noted although an increasing number of Viet kieu wish to return to live and work, they are deterred by hurdles to buying property — to date, only 50 of the more than 3 million overseas Vietnamese have been allowed to buy houses in Viet Nam.
Current regulations governing overseas Vietnamese access to the property market are unclear and complicated as set out under Government decree 81/CP, said Trung.
Trung pointed out that along with the ministries of justice, foreign affairs and public security, the Community Support Fund had asked the Government to make changes to Viet kieu-related polices, in particular regulations relating to overseas Vietnamese and home ownership.
The country’s Doi moi (renewal) policy also enticed many Viet kieu to invest money and expertise in national development, he said.
Thus far, overseas Vietnamese have set up around 200 businesses in their country of origin, with combined investment capital of more than VND1.2 trillion ($76.9 million). In 2003, they founded nine businesses with total legal capital of US$32 million.
Technocom, a development group run by Viet kieu based in Eastern Europe, including Pham Nhat Vuong and Vu Viet Lam, spent almost VND500 billion ($32 million) on the five-star Vinpearl Resort & Spa Hotel on Hon Tre island off the Nha Trang coast, which opened last December.
This group is also behind the construction of a $32 million retail and trade centre in Ha Noi that is expected to start operating in late 2004. — VNS
