Overseas remittances rise in first nine months

Remittances from overseas Vietnamese to HCM City in the first nine months of the year amounted to US$2.8 billion, nearly 81.5 per cent of the figure for 2011.

In the first eight months of the year, remittances through commercial banks in HCM City accounted for 72 per cent of the $3.1 billion remitted through this channel in 2011, according to the deputy director of the State Bank of Viet Nam HCM City Branch, Nguyen Hoang Minh.

Minh said a large proportion of the remittances in recent years had been sent in the fourth quarter. Thus, total remittances for the year are expected to increase by 20 to 25 per cent compared with last year.

The managers of the HCM City remittance firm, Sacomrex, said the company had received remittances of $1.2 billion in the first eight months of the year, up by 20 per cent compared to last year.

Sacomrex's major markets are the US, Australia and Asia, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, which employ many Vietnamese guest labourers.

Trinh Hoai Nam, deputy director of Dong A remittance company, said the company had already received more than $1 billion in remittances from overseas Vietnamese in the first eight months of the year.

He said the company was expected to receive between $1.4 billion and $1.5 billion in remittances this year.

In the past few years, most overseas Vietnamese remittances have been sent to rural and remote areas where families of overseas guest labourers live.

According to the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, the money remitted home by overseas Vietnamese in the first half of the year amounted to $6.3 billion, contributing to 70 per cent of total remittances last year.

Around 4.5 million Vietnamese, including 500,000 guest labourers, live in more than 100 countries and territories around the world.

With remittances of $8.26 billion in 2010, Viet Nam was ranked among the top nine developing countries with the largest amount of remittances sent from abroad.

Last year, Viet Nam received remittances of $9 billion, which helped make up 92 per cent of the country's trade deficit.

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