Annually, when Tet (traditional lunar New Year) comes, overseas Vietnamese from 103 countries and territories around the world return home for their country’s biggest festival. On this occasion, they gathered in Hanoi to attend the “Xuan Que Huong” (Spring in the Homeland) event.
This year’s “Xuan Que Huong” was held eight days before Tet at Ba Dinh Square to welcome more than 1,000 overseas Vietnamese. President Truong Tan Sang and his wife also attended the event to share the joy and happiness with the overseas Vietnamese.

In a warm and cozy atmosphere, President Truong Tan Sang sent his best wishes to all overseas Vietnamese and their families. He emphasized: “The Party and State always considers the overseas Vietnamese community an inseparable part of the Vietnamese nation and always try their best to support Vietnamese expatriates in doing business, stabilising their lives, preserving national cultural characteristics and integrating into the communities of resident countries. It is expected that the overseas Vietnamese community is the bridge to promote friendship and co-operation between Vietnam and other countries in the world and always look towards the homeland”.

According to the statistics of the Vietnamese relevant bodies, there are now about four million overseas Vietnamese living, working and studying in 103 countries and territories. Most of them have high professional skill and great economic potential. They also have taken important positions in the governments, parliaments and authorized bodies in their local countries. Although living far from their native country, the overseas Vietnamese community always shows their love, pride and spirit of solidarity to preserve and promote national cultural identities.
 
The State also affirmed that the overseas Vietnamese is a human resource of the Vietnamese nation and an important factor to contribute to strengthening the relations, co-operation and friendship between Vietnam and other countries. For this reason, many policies and guidelines have been devised to better meet the practical benefits of the oversea Vietnamese and create favourable conditions for them returning and contributing to their homeland. The work on mobilizing overseas Vietnamese has been implemented well with diverse forms and contents, stirring their hearts. Therefore, after many years living far from their home, many overseas Vietnamese have returned home and made great contributions to the cause of national development and construction.

Together with the spirit of solidarity and always looking forward to the original source of the overseas Vietnamese and open policies of the State, it is expected that not only this spring but in coming springs, more and more overseas Vietnamese will return home and make more contributions to the prosperity and power of the country.
 
In 2011, the volume of remittances sent home by overseas Vietnamese reached 9 billion USD, equivalent to nearly 1/10 GDP of Vietnam, the highest ever, making Vietnam become one of the top ten countries receiving the largest amount of overseas remittance in 2011.