Overseas Vietnamese Community – A Huge and Valuable Resource

With the policies, guidelines, sentiments and attention of the Party and State leaders, the work of overseas Vietnamese has achieved important and comprehensive results in all aspects.

The Vietnamese community abroad has not only grown in number, position and role in the host country, but also made many practical and effective contributions towards the homeland with the aspiration to contribute to building, protecting and developing the country.

Looking back at the 20-year journey of implementing Resolution No. 36-NQ/TW of the Politburo on work with overseas Vietnamese, VNA reporters have produced a series of 5 articles entitled “Overseas Vietnamese with the aspiration to build a strong country.”

Lesson 1: A huge and valuable resource

Solidarity is a precious traditional cultural value formed and developed in the history of building and defending the country of our people. Solidarity is the source of strength, leading the country to overcome all difficulties and challenges, achieving one victory after another, creating glorious miracles.

As is natural for “children of Lac and grandchildren of Hong,” although living far from the Fatherland, at every historical moment of the country, the Vietnamese community abroad always preserves and spreads the spirit of great solidarity, ardent patriotism, and a turn towards the homeland, becoming a valuable resource in the cause of national construction and development.

"Humanity is the way of heaven, family is the way of life"

During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh always paid special attention to overseas Vietnamese. He highly appreciated the hearts and love of overseas Vietnamese towards the Fatherland.

In his New Year's letter to overseas Vietnamese in 1946, Uncle Ho affirmed: "The Fatherland and the Government always miss our compatriots, just as parents miss their absent children. That is the human heart and the natural order, that is the love of a family."

From the ideology of great national unity, the care and attention to overseas Vietnamese resources of Uncle Ho, our Party and State always determine that overseas Vietnamese are an inseparable part and a resource of the Vietnamese ethnic community.

The Party and State have issued many important resolutions and policies to promote work related to overseas Vietnamese and promote the role of overseas Vietnamese.

Typical examples are Resolution No. 36-NQ/TW dated March 26, 2004 of the Politburo on work with overseas Vietnamese; Directive No. 45-CT/TW dated May 19, 2015 of the Politburo on continuing to promote the implementation of Resolution No. 36-NQ/TW of the 9th Politburo on work with overseas Vietnamese in the new situation.

In particular, the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress set out the task of "more comprehensively and strongly implementing work for overseas Vietnamese."

In order to contribute to the successful implementation of the vision and goals of national development, based on the lessons learned during the implementation process, in the new context of the world, the country and our overseas Vietnamese community, Conclusion No. 12-KL/TW dated August 12, 2021 of the Politburo on the work of overseas Vietnamese in the new situation emphasized: “In order to effectively implement the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, to meet the requirements of the cause of national construction and defense, in the coming time, the work of overseas Vietnamese needs to continue to be deployed more comprehensively and strongly, thereby promoting the great resources and patriotism of our compatriots abroad towards their homeland and country; awareness and action are correct, in accordance with national interests; at the same time, more clearly demonstrating the sentiments and responsibilities of the Party and State in caring for the overseas Vietnamese community.”

Immediately afterwards, the Prime Minister signed and issued Decision No. 1334/QD-TTg dated November 10, 2023 approving the Project “Promoting resources of overseas Vietnamese to serve the country’s development in the new situation,” aiming to create an environment and domestic mechanisms for overseas Vietnamese to feel secure in their attachment and promote their resources to the country. Building a legal corridor so that overseas Vietnamese basically enjoy the same legal environment as domestic people when conducting investment, business, science and technology activities, etc.

It is also the affection that the Party and State leaders have for overseas Vietnamese whenever they have business trips abroad or when they return home; taking time to meet and chat intimately with them; listening to them share about their lives abroad. Understanding more about the difficulties and hardships of the overseas Vietnamese, the Party and State leaders promptly encourage them to strive to rise up, integrate into the local society, and make appropriate contributions to their homeland and country.

The clearest evidence is that recently, a series of new policies in the fields of identity, land, housing, real estate business, etc. have been issued to create favorable conditions for people returning to the country to live, work, invest, and do business, aiming to ensure the rights of Vietnamese citizens abroad are equivalent to those of people in the country.

Overseas Vietnamese delegation from 17 countries around the world visited the soldiers and people of Truong Sa island district and DK1 platform in 2022. (Photo: Diep Truong/VNA)

Over the years, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has coordinated with departments, ministries, branches and localities to organize many meaningful activities such as the Homeland Spring program, Overseas Vietnamese delegation attending the Hung Kings' death anniversary, visiting the military and people of Truong Sa island district and DK1 platform, Vietnam Summer Camp, Vietnamese Language Honor Day... bringing generations of Vietnamese people living far away from home back to the Fatherland, contributing to fostering feelings for the homeland, thereby fueling the desire to contribute and join hands to contribute to the development of the country.

“Immeasurable” contributions

Since the founding of the Party and the country, the revolutionary cause of our country and people has always received enthusiastic support and valuable resources from overseas Vietnamese around the world.

Many overseas Vietnamese, intellectuals and businessmen have followed the call of the Fatherland and Uncle Ho, contributing their intelligence and efforts to the cause of resistance, building and defending the Fatherland, such as Professor Tran Dai Nghia, Professor Luong Dinh Cua, Professor Tran Huu Tuoc...

In the early years of renovation, the contributions of overseas Vietnamese in terms of both material resources and knowledge, management experience, etc. helped the country overcome difficulties to gain the position and strength it has today.

The viewpoints, guidelines and policies on national solidarity towards overseas Vietnamese that are "in line with the Party's will and the people's will" have received the consensus, support and unanimous implementation of people at home and abroad.

The work of great solidarity, mobilizing and attracting overseas Vietnamese resources continues to be focused on, with more and more overseas Vietnamese participating in contributing economic resources, intellectual resources and "soft" resources to their homeland and country.

From about 4.5 million people in 109 countries and territories in 2016, there are now more than 6 million people living and working in 130 countries and territories. Of these, the number of people with university degrees or higher accounts for about 10%, equivalent to 600,000 people. In most areas where Vietnamese people live, associations have been established.

Vietnamese business associations, experts and intellectuals regularly have activities connecting with domestic partners, creating a widespread network, connecting Vietnamese people both at home and abroad.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son said that overseas Vietnamese have become an important resource in the process of building and developing the country. With their strengths in knowledge and experience, overseas Vietnamese are an important source of intelligence contributing to the country.

Every year, about 500 Vietnamese intellectual experts abroad, mainly from developed countries, return to the country to actively participate in policy making and planning activities, especially consulting on new development sectors and fields in Vietnam.

People contributed many profound and specific opinions on major issues of the country such as: science and technology, green economy, environment, startups, innovation, etc.

Many people actively connect and cooperate with domestic intellectuals, forming networks of scientists not only within Vietnam but also internationally, ready to provide resources to support Vietnam when necessary.

Besides, overseas Vietnamese have directly participated in research and teaching work in the country.

Models of applied research, technology transfer, and training of high-quality human resources associated with the names of overseas intellectuals have appeared, leaving many marks in the country's research and training fields.

Typical examples include: International Center for Interdisciplinary Science and Education ICISE in Quy Nhon (Professor Tran Thanh Van - French expatriate); Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (Professor Ngo Bao Chau - American expatriate); Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Computational Science and Technology (Professor Truong Nguyen Thanh - American expatriate); Tri Dung Business School (Dr. Nguyen Tri Dung - Japanese expatriate)...

Another extremely important resource that overseas Vietnamese contribute to the country's development is economic resources.

Over the past 30 years, the total amount of remittances sent back to the country has reached more than 200 billion USD, equivalent to the amount of foreign direct investment disbursement in the same period.

About 400 overseas Vietnamese returned home to attend the Fourth Conference of Overseas Vietnamese. (Photo: Minh Son/Vietnam+)

By the end of 2023, overseas Vietnamese had invested in 421 foreign direct investment projects with a total registered capital of 1.72 billion USD; along with thousands of enterprises with investment capital of Vietnamese people residing abroad.

In the first 6 months of 2024, remittances to Ho Chi Minh City reached nearly 5.2 billion USD, equal to 54.7% compared to the whole year of 2023 and increased by 19.5% over the same period.

Remittances to Ho Chi Minh City in particular and Vietnam in general are expected to continue to grow in the coming time, especially when the revised Land Law, Housing Law and Real Estate Business Law have just come into effect.

Promoting the tradition of solidarity, “mutual love and support,” “the rich help the poor,” our compatriots abroad also actively support and participate in social and humanitarian activities towards the homeland, supporting the country in disease prevention and control; helping compatriots in the country in difficult circumstances affected by storms, floods, natural disasters, poor compatriots in remote areas, borders, and islands; supporting the Vietnamese community in countries facing difficulties, etc.

Along with contributing economic resources, the Vietnamese community abroad actively joins hands to "green" Truong Sa.

From 2012 to 2023, the overseas Vietnamese community has donated to build a number of sovereignty boats, construct a number of structures on the island, buy gifts and necessities to send to the island points and DK1 Platform. The total amount of support is over 28 billion VND.

The comprehensive contributions in all fields of our overseas Vietnamese have contributed significantly to the development of the country in recent times, demonstrating the love for the homeland, the spirit of pride and national self-respect of the Vietnamese community abroad.

“Those are quantifiable numbers, but there are also many contributions of intelligence and intellect that cannot be measured,” Mr. Bui Thanh Son emphasized./.

(Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/cong-dong-nguoi-viet-nam-o-nuoc-ngoai-nguon-luc-to-lon-va-quy-gia-post973810.vnp