Remittances from overseas Vietnamese (OVs) are likely to reach 10-11 billion USD this year, marking a rise of nearly 20 percent from 2011 and a significant jump from an annual growth of 10 -15 percent recorded in the recent years.

Nguyen Hoang Minh, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City branch said remittances through commercial banks in HCM City amounted to 2.95 billion USD as of late September. This figure was expected to rise by 20 percent from that of last year.

Meanwhile, the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs (COVA) reported that money remitted home by OVs in the first half of this year hit 6.3 billion USD, contributing to 70 percent of total remittances last year.

In an interview granted to Thoi bao Ngan hang (Banking Review) on the sidelines of the second conference for OVs, Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Thanh Son affirmed that the Vietnamese Government always considers OVs as an integral part of the nation.

A host of mechanisms and policies has been adopted to assist OVs in acquiring citizenship and home purchase at home as well as to protect them abroad, he said.

As the homeland is carrying out a strategy to become a modernity-oriented industrial one by 2020, OVs’ brainpower and experience are a valuable resource, Son said.

Currently, there are over 2,000 OV-invested projects worth around 6 billion USD in the country, mainly in agriculture, healthcare, education, industry, real estate and tourism, COVA said.

Around 4.5 million Vietnamese, including 500,000 guest labourers, are living in more than 100 countries and territories worldwide. Over 80 percent of them are settling in developed nations.

Last year, Vietnam received remittances of 9 billion USD, which helped make up 92 percent of the country’s trade deficit.-VNA