(VEN) – Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) officially hosted the opening ceremony of the second Overseas Vietnamese Conference under the theme “Vision towards 2020 – the Overseas Vietnamese Community’s Integration and Development with the Nation” from 26-30 September.
Senior leaders of the Party and the State attended the meeting including Party Central Committee Permanent Secretariat Le Hong Anh, Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan, Former Vice President Truong My Hoa, Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Huynh Dam, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh. About 1,000 intellectuals, entrepreneurs, social activists, religious leaders, and representatives for Vietnamese community media associations across the world were also present at the event.
According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh, there are about 4.5 million Vietnamese people living and working abroad who are positively integrating into the host society via significant contribution to host economies. Overseas Vietnamese communities are playing an increasingly important role in the country’s diplomatic strategy. Many overseas Vietnamese people, especially the young, are making successes in the fields of science and technology, economy, culture and society. The Vietnamese government regards overseas Vietnamese communities as an integral part of the Vietnamese people, highly appreciating their contribution to the country’s development and global integration, and willing to create favorable conditions for these communities to contribute more to the country. The conference is a positive move to enhance overseas Vietnamese community development and also offers a forum for more comprehensive assessments of the policy for overseas Vietnamese from which the Vietnamese Government will prepare suitable short and long term programs and identify some specific orientations to utilize the overseas Vietnamese communities’ potential for the industrialization and modernization of the country.
According to information from the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs (COVA), 4.5 million overseas Vietnamese are living and working in 103 countries and territories around the world. Every year, about half of a million overseas Vietnamese, including many professionals and intellectuals, return to Vietnam to work and find investment opportunities. Vietnam is hosting more than 3,500 companies founded or invested by overseas Vietnamese with a total registered capital of US$8.4 billion. Overseas Vietnamese remittances to the country increased from 10-15 percent year on year, reaching more than US$9 billion in 2009, accounting for nearly one tenth of the country’s GDP, and making Vietnam one of the world’s 10 countries receiving the most remittances that year. In the first six months of 2012, remittances reached US$6.4 billion, making a significant contribution to stabilizing the country’s economy. This is an invaluable contribution that Vietnam needs to make use of and promote in the courses of industrialization, modernization and global integration.
The conference offered a comprehensive look at the overseas Vietnamese’s potential contribution to the country via focusing on four symposia on the future of the community and the problems of integration and development, the traditional identity and culture, and the united dynamics for better integration with the country, overseas Vietnamese intellectuals’ potential and contribution to the industrialization and modernization of the country, and overseas Vietnamese entrepreneurs’ contribution to the country’s development.
The conference attracted the attention of numerous domestic and international newspapers and television channels and was considered as a highly rated communication event to promote Vietnam’s image and national unity spirit to the world.
An Overseas Vietnamese Business Association’s meeting and program to take overseas Vietnamese delegates for a visit to typical manufacturing facilities in HCMC were also held within the framework of the conference./.
By Hong Anh & My Phung
Source: talkvietnam
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