VietNamNet Bridge – The HCM City Committee for Overseas Vietnamese considers improving the flow of information, one of its most important tasks in building a bridge between ethnic Vietnamese living abroad and their native country.

The HCOV announced this at a meeting held last week in the city to review six years of implementing the Political Politburo’s Resolution 36 on Overseas Vietnamese Affairs.

Its chairman, Phan Tham, said the effective implementation of Resolution No 36 had contributed to attracting a large number of overseas Vietnamese visitors and investors to their homeland.

Since 2005 more than 2.7 million Vietnamese expats have returned home during the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival.

The committee had so far provided information to more than 18,000 of them about national policies on land and housing, citizenship, repatriation, and residency, Tham said.

Overseas Vietnamese had invested VND45 trillion (over US$2.1 billion) in 2,500 firms in the country.

They were also involved in 132 other foreign projects with a total investment of US$270 million.

Nearly 450 overseas Vietnamese experts and professionals lived and worked in HCM City.

To achieve its objective of being a “better bridge” between overseas Vietnamese and their homeland, the committee would step up tasks like doing surveys and collecting information about Vietnamese living abroad, especially professionals and those working or studying abroad or married to foreigners.

It would also promote the country’s image and language among Vietnamese communities in other countries, and help create conditions for overseas Vietnamese to get involved in the city’s socio-economic development.

At the meeting, the committee offered suggestions for amending policies and laws that are outdated to help overseas Vietnamese maximise their contribution to the construction and development of the city and nation and to national solidarity.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News