VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese living abroad remitted over US$5 billion to HCM City last year, 4.2 per cent higher than in 2013, according to figures released at a meeting held by the city's Committee for Overseas Vietnamese yesterday, Jan 21.

Cash counted at a bank in Bac Ninh Province. Overseas Vietnamese community remitted more than US$5 billion to HCM City last year, an increase of 4.2 per cent compared to the previous year, the city's Committee for Overseas Vietnamese reported.

Since 1993, total remittances through official channels have amounted to nearly $96.7 billion, or an average $4.4 billion per year and accounting for 6.8 per cent of the city's economy.

Last year overseas Vietnamese hailing from HCM City took part in many social activities including building houses for the poor and concrete bridges to replace bamboo bridges in remote areas and grant scholarships worth over VND3 billion ($15,000) to poor students.

The committee also co-ordinated with the overseas Vietnamese communities in Laos and Cambodia to organise medical examinations and give gifts worth nearly VND1 billion to some 1,300 ethnic Vietnamese and locals living in Laos' Savannakhet Province and Cambodia's Prey Veng Province.

According to the committee, HCM City welcomed 756,974 overseas Vietnamese in 2014 and nearly 1,000 of them visited the office of the HCM City Committee to learn about new policies and laws on investment, business, labour, residency, land and house management, nationality, and inheritance.

Speaking at the meeting, city People's Committee deputy chairman Le Thanh Liem hailed the contributions made by the Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) community to HCM City.

He urged the committee and relevant agencies to help overseas Vietnamese facing difficulties and provide support and guidance to businesses established by the community.

At the meeting, the People's Committee awarded certificates of merit to four organisations and two members while the committee awarded its own certificates of merits to 10 organisations and 35 members for their contributions to the activities of the community abroad in 2014.

VNS