|
Overseas remittance reached US $8 billion in 2008
Despite the economic recession, the sum of money remitted by overseas Vietnamese to their relatives in Vietnam in 2008 still increased by 19% over the previous year.
US $8 billion worth of overseas remittance was the figure announced by the Committee for Overseas Vietnamese at their meeting with the press on January 6, 2009. The figure represents an increase of $1.3 billion in comparison with the overseas remittance in 2007.
Nguyen Quoc Dung, Deputy Chairman of the committee, said that this is just an estimated figure, while the exact figure will only be released mid-2009. However, the estimated figure is really a surprise to many people.
“In the context of the world’s economic recession, the sum of money that every overseas Vietnamese remitted home was not bigger than the previous year, but the number of remitters increased considerably in the last year,” Dung said.
He added that the overseas remittance in the last few years has been on the rise, with the volume increasing year after year.
Prior to that, Western Union, the remittance service provider, also said that Vietnamese people, especially guest workers in foreign countries, always want to send money home to support their families’ members. Therefore, despite economic difficulties, they have still been trying to save money to remit to their relatives in Vietnam.
According to the Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, there are some 3,000 businesses which have capital contribution from overseas Vietnamese. The total registered capital of the businesses is nearly $2 billion, while 60% of the projects have been operating well.
There are some 3 million overseas Vietnamese people who live and work in foreign countries. A recent statistics released by the United Nations showed that Vietnam is among 10 countries which receive biggest overseas remittances.
VNE
|
