Hanoi 18th March 2005

Question: Are there any changes in Vietnam's position on overseas Vietnamese?

Answer:

We appreciate the role of the overseas Vietnamese community and their contribution to the homeland. As precious assets of Vietnam, millions of overseas Vietnamese who live and work abroad play an important role in and effectively contribute to the national construction in many aspects. Economically, from 1988 to the end of 2004 there were 1,630 projects of overseas Vietnamese investing into Vietnam with registered capital of 630 million USD and 3,500 billion VND. The annual remittance of overseas Vietnamese to their relatives in Vietnam is on the rise. Understanding both Vietnam's situation and demand as well as the situation, economy and customs of their residing countries, overseas Vietnamese constitute important contact points between Vietnamese businesses, economic organizations and foreign partners. I believe that the impressive export turnover of Vietnam in 2004 (26 billions USD) can be partly attributed to overseas Vietnamese. While Vietnam is making efforts to integrate into the international economy, overseas Vietnamese's knowledge of international laws and their residing countries' laws prove to be important to domestic partners. Increasing number of overseas Vietnamese returning to their native country also helps Vietnam's tourism grow.

No matter where they live in the world, the overseas Vietnamese community always maintains a close relationship with their homeland, aspiring to Vietnam's rapid development and international intergration. Overseas Vietnamese everywhere represent and promote the Vietnamese lifestyle and positive aspects of its culture, at the same time, enrich their residing countries' culture and improve understanding about Vietnam in those countries. The overseas Vietnamese community is also a bridge of friendship that helps improve understanding, cooperation and good sentiment between their residing countries and Vietnam.

Question: What changes does Vietnamese government make to attract more Vietkieu to do business and invest into Vietnam? What should it do more?

Answer:

The Vietnamese Government pursues a consistent policy on overseas Vietnamese. Together with time, the policy has become increasingly open and that has led to changes in the attitude of many overseas Vietnamese towards Vietnam. Considering the overseas Vietnamese community an intergral part and important human resource of the Vietnamese people, we have put forth many guidelines and policies of openness as well as concrete measures to facilitate our fellow-men to visit their homeland and relatives, make investment and do business...

Legally, overseas Vietnamese become another country's citizen once they are granted its citizenship, but as Asians, they are still closely attached to their relatives in Vietnam emotionally and through kinship. We encourage them to maintain and develop that relationship in accordance with the laws of their residing countries. As you may be aware, a lot of Vietnamese left the country in the postwar period and quite a few retain prejudices and negative attitudes towards their homeland. Our situation was very difficult then. That's why our policy was still not very open. Under such circumstances, the thought and attitude of overseas Vietnamese in some areas towards Vietnam were not positive and so was the thought about overseas Vietnamese of the Vietnamese inside the country. Recently, together with the changes and developments of Vietnam, the increasingly open policy of the State on overseas Vietnamese has paved the way for more overseas Vietnamese to return home, making more contribution to Vietnam, forging much closer relations between people living within and without Vietnam and enhancing their mutual understanding.

Lately, we have proposed many recommendations on overseas Vietnamese to the Government, leading to the introduction of many policies, especially Resolution 36 of the Political Bureau on 26th March 2004 accompanied by the Government's Action Plan which assigns all ministries, central and local agencies to formulate new policies in order to offer more supports to overseas Vietnamese. This was an evident illustration of the State of Vietnam's policy toward overseas Vietnamese.

In the time to come, we will focus on the four following major tasks:

1. To put forward measures and policies to create favourable conditions for overseas Vietnamese to return home such as those in immigration and citizenship renouncement and acquirement procedures. For requests to retain dual nationalities, we will take them into consideration in accordance with international practice. We will also consider other policies related to overseas Vietnamese on such issues as the right to inheritance, purchase of real estate, houses and use of house. The policies and measures relating to interests of individuals will be more open as well.

2. To propose to the Government measures and policies to facilitate overseas Vietnamese coming back to Vietnam for business, trade and investment. Introduce policies to create the most favorable conditions for overseas Vietnamese intellectuals and scientists to return to Vietnam not only to help develop the country's technology but also do business and improve themselves intellectually on the basis of "benefits for both the country and the individual."

3. To pay more attention to the spiritual life and culture of overseas Vietnamese. The Vietnamese and other Asians constantly desire to maintain their cultural identity, customs and traditions and close ties with their relatives and compatriots living in Vietnam. Therefore, we have the responsibility to provide them with information on all aspects of the country and cultural products through TV, websites, electronic and print newspapers.. We also encourage activities of cultural exchanges such as inviting overseas Vietnamese artists to perform in Vietnam or sending artistic groups to perform abroad, organizing sports events between Vietnamese and foreign athletes' I think that such cultural exchanges will help overseas Vietnamese maintain their national cultural identities.

4. To encourage and assist learning and teaching of the Vietnamese language for overseas Vietnamese, particularly for the youth because they have little chance to practice their mother tongue.We will offer our support in different ways: providing text books and curricula to them, transmitting Vietnamese teaching program on TV; establishing schools for Vietnamese for overseas Vietnamese children. We pay much attention to the young generation of overseas Vietnamese. Last year, for the first time, we organized a summer camp in Vietnam for 90 children of overseas Vietnamese in 2 weeks. This July, we will hold one more camp. We will also hold annual summer classes with short training courses for overseas Vietnamese children and later on we will ecourage them to participate in long term training courses. We have received a lot of positive responses after the first summer camp. Their parents and the kids have sent us mails and emails expressing their wonderful impression of the camp: The camp helped them travel from North to South and better understand their home country, the image of which was vague to them previously. The camp also helped them visit beauty spots of the country, learn about the national culture and get to know changes during the country's reform as well as difficulties facing the people in their lives so that they can make contribution as deemed necessary.

Question: Could you please tell me the number of overseas Vietnamese coming home for business and tourism?

Answer:

The number of overseas Vietnamese coming home to visit their relatives and do business has been on the rise since 2000. In 1986 (the year we started our Reform process) that number was 8000, by the end of 1990s: 250,000-270,000 per year. Early 2000 and 2001: more than 300,000 ; 2002-2003: 360,000-380,000; and 2004: 430,000 . During last Tet of 2005 alone, there were 200,000 overseas Vietnamese visiting home for Tet. Standing at that figure, overseas Vietnamese returning home accounted for one sixth of the total tourist coming to Vietnam.

Question: Could you please provide information on annual remittance sending to Vietnam? Is that figure 4 billion USD a year?

Answer:

I think the figure quoted on the Internet is just an estimate. Maybe less than 4 billion USD. Previously, the remittance of overseas Vietnamese was about 2 billion USD/year, now it’s around 3 billion/year, mainly sent by overseas Vietnamese to their relatives for living and doing business. The remittance indirectly supports the development of the Vietnamese society and economy. The Goverment has been working out policies to create favorable conditions for people to receive remittance from abroad and quickly transfer money in accordance with Vietnam's and the local countriess laws.

Question: Do you think that there is still suspicion among overseas Vietnamese after 30 year of war end?

Answer

I think that encouraging overseas Vietnamese to return to Vietnam is to nurture close ties between Vietnamese living in Vietnam and abroad. Currently, the Vietnamese Goverment pursues the policy of great national unity and this is clearly seen in Resolution 36 which I mentioned earlier.

Our State policy on overseas Vietnamese is as follows: We make it as our common goal to strive for national independence, wealthy people, strong country, a just, democratic and civilized society and accept different views as long as they don’t contradict the nation’s common interest; Regarless of religion, social status, family origins, reasons to leave Vietnam those Vietnamese living in Vietnam or abroad who wish to contribute to striving for the above target will find their place in the great national unity.

The last war has caused untold grave consequences to the country and the Vietnamese people. The war’s wounds like Agent Orange, huge sacrifice and human loss and devastating effects of ammunition still entail serious consequences for the country and the people of Vietnam.

But the most serious consequence of the war is the division that produced prejudices and biased and incorrect prespectives of Vietnam among quite a few overseas Vietnamese , like the perspective of some foreigners who look at "Vietnam as a war". We will try to introduce good policies to create new impressions of Vietnam so that overseas Vietnamese and foreigners will see Vietnam as a country that loves peace, for national unity and wishing to develop into a strong, modern and civilized state.

It is our policy to regard all Vietnamese living in Vietnam or abroad as equal, no matter what they did or which side they took in the past, what their social status they hold now.Generally speaking, as long as they have positive and constructive attitudes to their home country, they will certainly be a part of the great national unity.

Most of the thousands of overseas Vietnamese coming home now illegaly left the country in the post war period. According to our law, they violated the penal code. But as the government stated and due to Vietnam's historical conditions, relevant authorities never deal with their depature as required by the law, their home comings are even welcomed and in fact, they all feel comfortable. For example, Mr. Nguyen Cao Ky, former Vice President and Premier of the Saigon regime has returned to Vietnam 3 times and acted as an intermediate person for US companies to invest into Vietnam. Thich Nhat Hanh, a well-known figure in Europe, is in Hanoi now and thurified to the Hung King yesterday. Many foreign monks and followers accopanying him for 3 months are delighted to be able to visit all three parts of Vietnam. We facilitate them to learn more about Vietnam's situation. It doesn't matter how much they contribute to the country. It depends on their personal decision and conditions .