What is Ho Chi Minh City doing to develop remittances?

Overseas Vietnamese attend the Conference on Implementing the Project "Policies to Effectively Utilize Overseas Remittance Resources in Ho Chi Minh City from Now to 2030"

On October 11th, the Committee for Overseas Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City - the agency responsible for developing remittances - organized a conference to implement the project "Policies to effectively utilize remittance resources in Ho Chi Minh City from now until 2030".

At the conference, government agencies, businesses, overseas Vietnamese intellectuals, and representatives of diplomatic missions abroad contributed opinions on policy mechanisms and solutions to orient remittance resources towards socio-economic development, shifting them into the stock market, bond market, production and business, services, and real estate. This will directly contribute to expanding domestic investment, creating jobs, and generating revenue for the national budget.

To achieve this goal, Mr. Nguyen Duc Lenh, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City Branch, said that the banking sector in Ho Chi Minh City is focusing on improving the quality of remittance payment services. They are doing a good job of providing advice and communication so that remittance recipients have more choices, such as: spending on daily life; investing in production and business; saving; or investing in bonds…

Meanwhile, Mr. Trinh Hoai Nam, Director of Vietcombank's Remittance Company (VCBR), proposed expanding the policy to attract more remittance resources. Accordingly, the State needs to open more channels for transferring USD from overseas organizations to individuals in Vietnam. For example, a US company could transfer money to individuals in Vietnam who are employed by that company. This amount of foreign currency is significant because the number of people in Vietnam receiving salaries from abroad is quite large and will increase in the future.

Representatives from the Vietnamese Embassies in Japan, South Korea, and Australia stated that the number of overseas Vietnamese wishing to contribute to the country is increasing. Based on this reality, the Ho Chi Minh City government can actively coordinate to provide comprehensive and timely information on the benefits of policies attracting remittances to overseas Vietnamese. Notably, Ho Chi Minh City needs to widely disseminate incentive measures so that overseas Vietnamese understand that the greatest benefit from remittances is investment and business, rather than saving or using them for personal purposes.

In particular, Dr. Le Thi Thanh Nhan, a lecturer at the Australian National University, proposed key solutions to leverage remittance resources: Ho Chi Minh City should encourage overseas Vietnamese to invest in business, develop social investment programs, and connect overseas Vietnamese with domestic business opportunities...

Accordingly, Ho Chi Minh City could issue bonds with maturities of 5-10 years specifically for each project, linked to the entity directly responsible for raising capital and repaying the debt. The incentive policy could include tax exemptions or preferential treatment in the first year to attract overseas Vietnamese to invest remotely. This could be combined with banks offering interest rates on remittances held in accounts for 1-6 months, aiming to encourage the use of remittances in productive activities.

At the same time, Ho Chi Minh City needs to expand investment rights to allow overseas Vietnamese to participate more in economic development, similar to what India has done: allowing overseas Vietnamese to enjoy almost the same rights as domestic citizens, including investing in real estate and business projects; reducing land tax during the investment period, especially for projects serving the community or developing smart cities…

Source: https://nld.com.vn/tp-hcm-lam-gi-de-phat-trien-kieu-hoi-196241011130302623.htm