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VietNamNet Bridge – The volume of kieu hoi to be remitted to Vietnam in 2010
is expected to be higher than that in 2009, sources say.
The report on overseas remittance and migration released by the World Bank
recently said that the kieu hoi volume to be remitted to Vietnam this year may
reach $7.2 billion, higher than the previous year’s level at $6.6 billion.
Representatives of Vietnamese commercial banks also say that kieu hoi keeps
flowing to Vietnam, expecting the 20-30 percent growth rate in 2010 in
comparison with 2009.
According to the Foreign Exchange Management Department under the State Bank of
Vietnam, by the end of November 2010, the volume of kieu hoi had reached $7.6
billion. The volume of kieu hoi to be remitted to Vietnam in December 2010 is
expected to reach $770 million, thus raising the total volume of kieu hoi to
Vietnam in 2010 to $8 billion, an increase of 25.6 percent in comparison with
the whole year 2009.
The central bank also believes that kieu hoi will keep flowing to Vietnam in
January 2011, because January 2011 will be the Tet month. Vietnamese people
always spend more money on Tet, therefore, overseas Vietnamese always remit more
money to their relatives in Vietnam in this month to help their relatives
celebrate the traditional Tet.
The central bank’s report shows a bright picture about Vietnam’s foreign
currency supplies. The surplus in foreign portfolio investment has reached $800
million so far this year, while the disbursement for foreign direct investment
projects in 2010 has increased by 9.9 percent in comparison with the same period
of the last year. Meanwhile, foreign banks are bringing foreign currencies to
Vietnam to make capital contribution to Vietnamese banks which have to increase
their chartered capital to three trillion dong by December 31, 2010.
According to Nguyen Hoang Minh, Deputy Director of the HCM City Branch of the
State Bank of Vietnam, said that the volume of kieu hoi remitted through local
commercial banks is expected to reach four billion dollar, increasing by nearly
30 percent in comparison with 2009.
Trinh Hoai Nam, Deputy General Director of Overseas Remittance Service Company
under Dong A Bank, said that in the first 11 months of the year, the volume of
kieu hoi remitted through his company has reached $1.1 billion, while he
believes that the figure would increase to $1.2 billion by the end of the year.
Vietcombank has also reported that $1.1 billion worth of kieu hoi has been
remitted through the bank. Sacombank hopes that about one billion dollars worth
of kieu hoi would go through the bank.
In general, Vietnamese people use kieu hoi for daily expenses, saving or bank
deposits. However, analysts believe that kieu hoi receivers will not sell
foreign currencies to banks, but will sell on the black market in order to enjoy
bigger profit, because the dollar prices on the black market are 2,000 dong per
dollar higher than the prices quoted by commercial banks.
Explaining the increases in kieu hoi, Minh from the State Bank said many
economies in the world have recovered from the global crisis, therefore,
overseas Vietnamese have more money to send to their relatives in Vietnam.
According to Dong A Bank, kieu hoi has been mostly remitted from big economies
such as the US, Canada, Australia and the countries, where a big number of
Vietnamese people are working, such as South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia.
Meanwhile, the kieu hoi volume from European countries may decrease due to the
public debt crisis in Ireland and Greece.
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