Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Van Duoc said that with roughly 2.8 million people maintaining direct or indirect ties to the city, the overseas Vietnamese community represents a highly valuable resource in terms of expertise, management experience, technology, finance and international networks.
Vietnam has consistently ranked among the world’s top 10 remittance-receiving countries. In 2024, total remittances reached approximately 16 billion USD, equivalent to nearly 4% of GDP. In a volatile global financial environment, these inflows have become a reliable economic buffer.
Ho Chi Minh City plans to create funds for overseas Vietnamese seeking to invest in real estate and small and medium-sized enterprises, and buy bonds for funding infrastructure.
Overseas remittances to Ho Chi Minh City reached nearly 5.2 billion USD in the first half of 2024, equivalent to 54.7% of last year's figure and up 19.5% year-on-year, according to Nguyen Duc Lenh, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)'s HCM City branch.
The Land Law 2024, which creates a smooth legal corridor for overseas Vietnamese (OV) to invest in housing in Vietnam, is expected to help Vietnam attract billions of dollars of remittances each year, contributing to promoting the growth of the real estate sector, according to insiders.
Overseas remittances to Ho Chi Minh City in 2023 reached over 9.46 billion USD, marking a year-on-year increase of 43.3% and a record high in the last ten years, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)'s Ho Chi Minh City branch Nguyen Duc Lenh said on January 23.
The Fed’s latest move did not come as a surprise to the market, as many had anticipated a rise in interest rates due to record inflation in the US during the past months.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has harmed the global economy, remittances to Vietnam in 2021 remained high. In particular, the sum increased sharply at the end of the year, contributing to stabilising the supply of foreign currency in the country and developing the economy.
The World Bank and the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) forecast that remittance to Vietnam is estimated at 18.1 billion USD in 2021.
The amount of money migrant workers in the ASEAN bloc sent home fell in the second quarter of the year amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, in a worrying sign for household incomes and local economies, according to the latest report from the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO).
Remittances sent to Ho Chi Minh City reached 1.8 billion USD in the first four months of this year, down 2 percent year-on-year, according to the State Bank of Vietnam branch in the city.
Though Tet (Lunar New Year) is approaching with rising capital demands, the liquidity of the banking system is abundant, helping interest rates in the inter-bank market drop sharply, industry insiders said.
The increasing inflow of remittances ahead of the Lunar New Year has replenished the liquidity of the banking system, thus resulting in a steep fall in the interbank interest rates in January, according to insiders.
Remittance is an important factor in enhancing the liquidity of Vietnam’s real estate sector, as the amount of the money flowing to Vietnam in the recent years has continuously increased, according to market watchers.
Remittance to Ho Chi Minh City in the first quarter of 2018 increased by 4.5 percent against the same period last year to reach 1.12 billion USD, a central bank official said.
The Philippines and Qatar on April 16 signed trade agreements worth 200 million USD during the final stop of President Rodrigo Duterte’s tour of Gulf states.
The increasing amounts of remittances sent back to the homeland by overseas Vietnamese over the past few years have helped the country offset its trade deficit, reduce poverty.
Budget losses as a consequence of falling oil price in many oil exporting countries badly impact the flow of remittance into the Philippines, reported the Financial Times on December 6.
