With nearly 4.5 million Vietnamese nationals residing in 104 countries and territories, they provide valuable financial and intellectual resources for the nation, and help promote Vietnam to the wider world.

The Party and State highly value the important role that overseas Vietnamese communities play in national development, considering them an inseparable part of the Vietnamese nation.

Vietnam is proud to have approximately 400,000 expatriates who are working for renowned organizations in developed countries. More than 100 experts are holding key positions in big technology groups, 20 are working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US, and tens of others are employed by Boeing plants and reputable hospitals in Paris, Tokyo and New York.

Prof. Ngo Bao Chau has won international acclaims for proving the fundamental lemma for automorphic forms proposed by Robert Langlands and Diana Shelstad. Vietnam hopes other OV scholars will be recognized by the international community in high technology, health care, economics, culture, and other fields.

The State has allowed OV to hold dual citizenship and purchase houses in Vietnam, making it easier for them to live and invest in the country in the long term. It has also simplified its administrative procedures and created a healthier investment climate to attract more capital flows from OV. 

During the past three or four years, overseas remittances have increased by 10-15 percent annually. In 2011, the remittances through formal channels hit US$9.2 billion, excluding more than US$6 billion OV were pouring into operational projects and several billions of US dollars more in other joint venture projects. As a result, Vietnam received a total of nearly US$20 billion from its expatriates overseas.

The figure is rather big compared to the total GDP value amounting to approximately US$100 billion the entire country generates every year. It even triples or quadruples the level of official development assistance (ODA) capital committed by foreign donors to Vietnam annually.

However, Vietnam has yet to take full advantage of the resources generated by overseas Vietnamese. Many experts and intellectuals are willing to return home and work for State organizations without any conditions.

How to better utilize their intellectualism is one of the main topics for discussions at the second national conference of overseas Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City on September 26-29. Measures will be proposed to create closer links between domestic and overseas Vietnamese intellectuals for national development.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is finalizing a specific number of policies, aiming to attract more overseas Vietnamese intellectuals. It plans to host several workshops for domestic and foreign intellectuals to discuss development issues in the fields of transportation, infrastructure construction, nuclear energy and agricultural production.

It is obvious that overseas Vietnamese are making a significant contribution to national development. The crux of the matter is that incentive policies are needed to attract more OV and effectively utilize their financial and intellectual resources.

(VOV)