State facilitates overseas Vietnamese’s return for traditional holiday

To facilitate the repatriation of Vietnamese nationals residing in other countries, the Vietnamese Government approved the regulations of visa exemption for overseas Vietnamese which came into effect on September 1, 2007.

Mr. Nguyễn Quốc Dũng, Vice Head of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese (SCOV), stressed in an interview with Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper that all policies issued by the Government are aimed at helping Vietnamese nationals residing in other countries to integrate into the host communities, stabilize their livelihood, conserve Vietnamese cultural identities and contacts with the fatherland.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also designed the website http://www.mienthithucvk.mofa.gov.vn on visa exemption and directed Việt Nam’s representative bodies to popularize the State’s guideline among the Vietnamese communities.
So far, tens of thousands of Vietnamese nationals in other countries have been granted with Visa Exemption Certificates; the number of applicants is increasing sharply.

The State is also directing the construction and perfection of policies and legal documents to meet legitimate interests of overseas Vietnamese.

Over the past years, overseas Vietnamese have made great contributions to the cause of national development. In 2008, the volume of overseas national currency exchange flowing into Việt Nam is estimated to reach US $8 billion, about US $2.5 billion higher than the set norm. During the upcoming traditional Lunar New Year holiday, about 400,000–500,000 Vietnamese nationals from other countries will return home.

In 2009, the SCOV plans to organize the first worldwide conference of overseas Vietnamese to review the community’s activities as well as the State’s policies, so as to voice necessary proposals.

By Hạnh Phương