Vietnam remains one of the 10 countries receiving the most remittances in the world, according to the recent Migration and Development Brief by the World Bank and the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development.
International organisations have forecast that the total amount of remittances to Vietnam may increase by 4.4% in 2022 and 3.6-4.5% the following year.
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.
In the run-up to Tet (Lunar New Year), the biggest traditional festival of Vietnam, the inflow of remittances sent by overseas Vietnamese to the homeland has been on the rise, fueled further by local banks’ preferential programmes.
Vietnamese abroad sent home some 12.5 billion USD this year, a year-on-year increase of 10 percent, Standing Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Dao Minh Tu told the Vietnam News Agency in a press conference on December 28.
The Ho Chi Minh City Committee for Overseas Vietnamese (OV) Affairs must continue to perform well in implementing State management over OVs in the city, giving advice on caring for poor Vietnamese abroad and connecting city leaders and OVs, and strengthening communications on Party and State policies and laws among the community, a city leader has said.
Remittances to Ho Chi Minh City still rose by 12 percent year-on-year to 6.1 billion USD in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the State Bank of Vietnam’s Branch in HCM City.
This year’s Homeland Spring, an annual programme held for overseas Vietnamese to celebrate the traditional Lunar New Year (Tet), will feature only one show without audience due to impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to organisers.
Despite negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, remittances Ho Chi Minh City received through commercial banks and economic organisations are forecast to reach 5.5 billion USD this year, a slight increase from 2019.
Vietnam is one of a few countries worldwide to successfully control the COVID-19 pandemic, creating opportunities to invest in the country and attracting overseas remittances for production expansion.
A conference gathering together overseas Vietnamese entrepreneurs was held in Ho Chi Minh City on October 27, with a view to tapping into this resource to contribute to the southern economic hub’s development.
Overseas remittances are expected to fall short of the target this year due to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdowns around the world.
Remittance flows into Vietnam are expected to reach 16.7 billion USD in 2019, Vice Chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs (SCOVA) Luong Thanh Nghi cited statistics of the World Bank at a meeting with the press in Hanoi on December 26.
Remittances to Vietnam are likely to further increase in 2019 because overseas Vietnamese people believe in the stability of the economy and see better investment opportunities, economist Nguyen Tri Hieu said.
Ho Chi Minh City received about 3.45 billion USD in remittances sent back home by overseas Vietnamese in the first eight months of 2019, a year-on-year increase of 8 percent, according to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)’s HCM City Branch.
Remittances to Ho Chi Minh City were estimated to reach 1.2 billion USD in the first quarter of this year, said Nguyen Hoang Minh, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam’s branch in the southern largest economic hub.
As many as 200 delegates representing overseas Vietnamese from 28 countries gathered at a conference in the central province of Nghe An on December 27 to discuss connections between them and localities in the homeland.
Remittances to Vietnam have increased despite the rise in USD price against other currencies and the zero interest rate for foreign currency savings, factors experts said would impact remittance flow.
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