Vietnamese citizens living abroad have invested in more than 900 businesses in HCM City with a registered capital of VND40 trillion (US$1.8 billion), according to HCM City’s Department of Planning and Investment.

The city also has around 120 foreign investment projects with a total capital of $260 million funded by Vietnamese people living overseas. These projects are connected to infrastructure construction, environment treatments and shopping centres, which have helped modernise and urbanise the city.

There are also 300 experts and intellectuals from overseas Vietnamese who are currently working at schools, hospitals and research centres in the city.

Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong, deputy chairwoman and secretary general of the municipal Liaison Association for Overseas Vietnamese, said that in recent years, HCM City has promulgated incentives to support people who live abroad but do business in their home country, connecting domestic and foreign enterprises. The association keeps close contacts with Vietnamese people living abroad, especially those in West European countries, the US and Canada.

Currently, around 4.5 million Vietnamese citizens live and work in around 100 countries and territories across the world. Between 2002 and 2015, remittances were around 6 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), nearly equal to the total foreign direct investment (FDI), which made up 7.7 per cent of the GDP, and double the official development assistance (ODA) capital, which accounted for 3 per cent of the GDP.

In 2016, the figure declined, but remittances transferred to the country still amounted to $9 billion.

Around 70 per cent of the remittances go into production and business, and another 20 per cent into real estate.

These remittances are a stable source of foreign currency for Viet Nam, increasing the national foreign currency reserves, reducing dependence on foreign capital and easing pressure off the USD exchange rate.

Within the country, HCM City attracts the most remittances. Around 50 per cent of the remittances transferred to Viet Nam go to the southern metropolis, according to the State Bank of Viet Nam’s HCM City branch. The city received $5.5 billion in remittance in 2015, a year-on-year rise of 10 per cent. This dropped to $5 billion in 2016. — VNS