200,000 Overseas Vietnamese Return Home for Tet

200,000 Overseas Vietnamese Return Home for Tet

Around 200,000 overseas Vietnamese (Viet Kieu) returned to Vietnam to enjoy Tet (Lunar New Year festival), posting an on-year increase of 20 per cent, according to the government’s Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs. Most of them came back from the US, France, Canada and Australia.

Of the total, one-third returned to Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam and also the place witnessing hundred thousands of Vietnamese people fleeing abroad after the collapse of the US-backed Saigon regime in April 30, 1975.

Almost of the returnees shared the same view that their homeland has made a significant development with considerable social and political stability and improvement in living standard of people.

Since one month ahead the Lunar New Year, beginning on February 9, welcoming activities were organised warmly at all localities nationwide, where authorities declared the Government’s opening policies, particularly the recent Politburo’s resolution on creating numerous preferential conditions to overseas compatriots, and called for their contributions and investment in their fatherland.

According to the committee, there are an estimated 2.7 million Viet Kieu residing in 90 countries and territories around the world, including about 1.3 million in the US.

In recent years, the number of Viet Kieu returning for visits has sharply risen, with an estimated of 400,000 flooding home annually. More than US$3 billion in remittances was sent to Vietnam last year, an increase of US$300,000 compared to 2003.

The flow of investment capital from Viet Kieu into the country has also increased annually. By September 2004, approximately 1,500 Viet Kieu-invested enterprises had been registered to operate in Vietnam with a total combined capital of VND3,000 billion.

To date, Viet Kieu from 15 countries, mostly from Germany, Russia and France, have invested US$362 million in 118 projects, with two-thirds of the projects going to Ho Chi Minh City, which has made ambitious plans to welcome Viet Kieu returning to the city.

However, overseas Vietnamese is looking forward to the day when they do not need a visa to return to Vietnam, as the Politburo and the central Government have issued documents on the issue.

• P.V