Remittances support VN development

Currently, nearly 4.5 million Vietnamese people are living and working in over 100 countries and territories around the world.
In 2000, Vietnamese expatriates sent US$1.75 billion (Bt62 billion) to the homeland, which increased 117 per cent to $3.8 billion in 2005.
The volume continued climbing to $8 billion in 2010. Also that year, Vietnam was ranked the 16th global recipient of remittances by the World Bank, and it was ranked the second in Southeast Asia after the Philippines.
In 2013, Vietnam entered the top 10 recipients of remittances with $11 billion. The country was ranked third in Asia and 11th in the globe in attracting remittances in 2015, with over $13.2 billion.
From 2002-2015, the flow of remittances was equivalent to 6 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and nearly equivalent to foreign direct investment (FDI), which made up 7.7 per cent of GDP. It doubled official development assistance (ODA) capital, which accounted for 3 per cent of GDP.
After a slight decline, the volume of remittances transferred to the country reached about $9 billion in 2016.
Over 70 per cent of remittances are poured into production and business, while 20 per cent are injected into real estate.
The remittances have helped Vietnam have a stable source of foreign currency earnings, increase the national foreign currency reserves and reduce its dependence on foreign capital and the pressure of the US dollar exchange rate.
Ho Chi Minh City leads the nation in remittance attraction. According to the State Bank of Vietnam’s branch in Ho Chi Minh City, around 50 per cent of remittances transferred to Vietnam go to the southern metropolis.
The city received about $5.5 billion from remittances in 2015, a year-on-year rise of 10 per cent. The figure dropped to $5 billion in 2016.
In addition, over 80 per cent of the nation’s 1,100 overseas Vietnamese-invested enterprises are operating in HCM City.