On the morning of January 11, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang, Chairwoman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, chaired a press meeting to inform about the situation of the Vietnamese community abroad, the results of work in 2023, and the direction of activities in 2024. The Vietnamese community abroad continues to increase in number and expand in composition. Currently, the community has about 6 million people in 130 countries and territories, of which more than 80% are developed countries. The number of Vietnamese people going abroad to study, work, get married, invest, etc. continues to increase. The majority of them have legal status, stabilized their lives, and deeply integrated into the host society in all fields, and are highly appreciated by the local government and people. Some have participated in local politics at different levels.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang.

Overseas Vietnamese continue to have many activities towards their homeland, promoting their role as an important resource in the country's development process. According to the forecast of the State Bank of Vietnam, the amount of remittances sent back to the country in 2023 will increase by 25-30% compared to 2022. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang said that in all high-level visits of our leaders and in meetings with leaders of other countries, there is always content related to the Vietnamese community abroad. Despite limited time when working abroad, high-ranking leaders always take time to meet our community in the host country, sometimes visiting and encouraging them at home.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang, Chairwoman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, chaired a press meeting.

The Deputy Minister emphasized that overseas Vietnamese are a great resource of the country, able to contribute and share experiences in many fields. To mobilize them, it is commendable that there are policies and documents from the highest level, the Politburo, to the Government's action programs, and implementation projects at the ministerial level; next, there must be appropriate policies to attract and treat them. Regarding preserving and conserving culture, especially the language in the overseas Vietnamese community, this is not only a challenge for the Vietnamese community but also for communities in many countries around the world. Deputy Minister Le Thi Thu Hang shared that the younger generation born and raised in the locality, living in areas with a large community, has an easier time preserving culture and language, however, there are also quite a few communities living quite isolated. "The Vietnamese community abroad is getting younger and younger. In the past 20 years, many generations of young Vietnamese have been born in Japan, Taiwan (China), South Korea... The State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese is also very concerned and determined to build a project to honor the Vietnamese language and was approved by the Prime Minister in August 2022", said the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. 2023 is the first year of implementing the project, with many activities such as searching for Vietnamese language ambassadors, Gala Dear Mother Tongue, training Vietnamese language teachers, building Vietnamese bookcases... Talking about material resources, Deputy Minister Le Thi Thu Hang said that the remittance flow has been maintained steadily over the past years and Vietnam is always in the top 10 countries receiving the largest amount of remittances. The amount of remittances sent home from 1993 (the first year of remittance statistics) to 2022 reached over 190 billion USD, nearly equal to the FDI capital disbursed in the same period. The Deputy Minister assessed that this is a very large and valuable amount; this cash flow when returning to the country is invested in projects, real estate, production business... 80% of Vietnamese people live in developed countries, with about 600,000 people having university degrees and higher. Ms. Le Thi Thu Hang commented that this is a force that has access to world trends and tendencies, holds positions in the local government system, some are successful businessmen... These are people who can advise, build policies, and propose contents for Vietnam when participating in the world's economic development trends.

Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Nguyen Manh Dong.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Dong, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, said that domestic localities currently have a great need to connect with overseas Vietnamese resources. In November 2023, the Prime Minister approved the project to promote overseas Vietnamese resources to serve the country's development in the new situation. To implement the project, in December 2023, the conference "Promoting overseas Vietnamese resources, connecting localities and businesses" was held in Hai Phong. After the conference, a number of localities such as Thai Nguyen, Khanh Hoa, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City raised the issue with the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese. Da Nang shared the need to find and connect overseas Vietnamese in the semiconductor industry, due to the desire to develop the supporting industry, while some localities expressed the need to connect to export agricultural products. Mr. Nguyen Manh Dong emphasized that first, localities need to identify development needs, from which the Committee will be a bridge with overseas Vietnamese, organizations, and individuals with skills, qualifications, and understanding of the issue.

Vietnamnet.vn

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