President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Nguyen Thien Nhan has urged the overseas Vietnamese intellectuals to join in seeking the solutions to the five key socio-economic tasks of the country in the period from now to 2030.

He made the call when meeting with participants of the first forum for overseas Vietnamese intellectuals on Vietnam’s development and integration from 2016 to 2020 in Hanoi on June 7.

The VFF leader asked OV community to contribute their ideas on how to turn Vietnam into an agricultural and tourism power and a new manufacturing centre of the world. He said the country also needs to develop a system of smart cities and a contingent of scientists and technicians who are among the top three in the ASEAN region.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Hong Nam emphasised that at the forum, overseas Vietnamese scientists and experts from different fields had made constructive recommendations on issues important to the country’s development, including innovating growth models, restructuring the economy, industrialisation and modernisation processes, as well as education overhaul.

He reported that many of the OVs proposed organising the forum regularly to allow them to contribute more in national development.-VNA