As many as 200 overseas Vietnamese people (OVs) returning home to enjoy the Tet holiday gathered in central Da Nang city on January 24 to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

The meeting was a conjunction between the Vietnam Fatherland Front’s Standing Board, the Overseas Vietnamese Liaison Association and the Da Nang Department of External Affairs.

Speaking at the event, Van Huu Chien, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, introduced Da Nang’s achievements attained in 2013, pledging that the city will create more favourable conditions for the OVs to keep in touch with the homeland.

Da Nang has nearly 18,000 OVs, who have made remarkable contributions to the city’s construction, especially in investment, health care, education, science, technology and humanitarian activities, he said.

According to the official, between 2000 and now, the city received more than 125 million USD of remittances with over 80 million USD recorded last year.

The same day, the northern province of Thai Nguyen held a get-together for Vietnamese people living abroad shortly before the Tet festival.

At the event, the OVs were briefed on the locality’s socio-economic development, poverty reduction and national defence and security as well as its relationship with domestic and foreign cities and provinces, and international organisations.

While discussing Thai Nguyen’s incentives to lure more investment and the operation of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in the locality, the participants shared experience in lecturing at several universities and colleges in the province.

Thai Nguyen has become one of the localities nationwide which took the lead in FDI attraction in 2013 with a total of 44 FDI businesses at present.-VNA