The increasing amount of remittances sent by Vietnamese citizens working abroad has helped the country offset its trade deficit, reduce poverty, and improved the living standards of those receiving it. — Photo nld.com.vn

HÀ NỘI – The increasing quantity of remittances sent back home by overseas Vietnamese over the past few years has helped the country offset its trade deficit, reduce poverty and improve recipients’ living standards.

Currently, nearly 4.5 million Vietnamese people are living and working in over 100 countries and territories around the world.

In 2000, Vietnamese expatriates sent US$1.75 billion to the homeland, which increased 117 percent to $3.8 billion in 2005.

The volume continued climbing to $8 billion in 2010. Also that year, Việt Nam was ranked the 16th global recipient of remittances by the World Bank, and it was ranked the second in Southeast Asia after the Philippines.

In 2013, Việt Nam entered the top 10 recipients of remittances with $11 billion. The country was ranked third in Asia and 11th in the globe in attracting remittances in 2015, with over $13.2 billion.

From 2002-2015, the flow of remittances was equivalent to 6 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and nearly equivalent to foreign direct investment (FDI), which made up 7.7 per cent of GDP. It doubled official development assistance (ODA) capital, which accounted for 3 per cent of GDP.

After a slight decline, the volume of remittances transferred to the country reached about $9 billion in 2016.

Over 70 per cent of remittances are poured into production and business, while 20 per cent are injected into real estate.

The remittances have helped Việt Nam have a stable source of foreign currency earnings, increase the national foreign currency reserves and reduce its dependence on foreign capital and the pressure of the US dollar exchange rate.

HCM City leads the nation in remittance attraction. According to the State Bank of Việt Nam’s branch in HCM City, around 50 per cent of remittances transferred to Việt Nam go to the southern metropolis.

The city received about $5.5 billion from remittances in 2015, a year-on-year rise of 10 per cent. The figure dropped to $5 billion in 2016.

In addition, over 80 percent of the nation’s 1,100 overseas Vietnamese-invested enterprises are operating in HCM City.-VNS