Overseas remittances to HCMC reach US$4 billion in nine months

Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Mr. Le Thanh Liem, Standing Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, informed that this year, the overseas Vietnamese community has taken practical actions along with local people to prevent the Covid-19 pandemic and maintain trade connection and economic recovery. Despite heavy impacts by the Covdi-19 pandemic, the number of remittances transferred to HCMC through commercial banking systems and economic organizations that directly receive and pay in foreign currencies reached about US$4 billion in the first nine months of this year, up 2 percent over the same period last year. It is estimated that overseas remittances transferred to the city will hit around $5.5 billion this year, up 0.82 percent compared to last year.

Currently, the European Union (EU) is one of the leading trade partners of Vietnam. The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) officially took effect from August 1 this year. Mr. Liem affirmed that Europe is a big market for enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City. Last year, the city's export turnover to the EU exceeded $5 billion, an increase of 5.4 percent. In the first six months of this year, export turnover to this market also touched $2.3 billion. However, this is also one of the fastidious markets, requiring businesses to make efforts to ensure quality, product design, as well as many other factors, to pass regulations set by the EU. Mr. Liem asked the business community for suggestions on solutions to improve the position of Vietnamese goods in the international arena, especially after the EVFTA officially became effective.

Speaking at the seminar, Ambassador Luong Thanh Nghi, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, emphasized that the contribution of overseas Vietnamese is immeasurable. Overseas Vietnamese in Europe have been actively participating in the campaign to mobilize overseas Vietnamese to introduce and sell products and develop distribution channels for Vietnamese products abroad in the period from 2019 to 2024.

However, Mr. Nghi said that the market share of Vietnamese goods in the EU is still modest compared to the potential and even weaker than those of other countries. In the coming time, the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs will continue to actively coordinate to introduce quality products, meeting the taste and needs of each locality. At the same time, the committee continues to encourage overseas Vietnamese experts, intellectuals, and entrepreneurs to actively transfer advanced science and technology to the country for application in production, support to improve production capacity, and domestic labor productivity. At the seminar, Mr. Jean-Jacques Bouflet, Vice President of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham), affirmed that with more than 1,000 members, EuroCham would do its best to ensure smooth and efficient implementation of the EVFTA. He said that Vietnam needs to help domestic enterprises strengthen the EU market share by better understanding the market and business standards of the EU, improving product quality, traceability, and reliability, at the same time adopting the culture of innovation, transparency, and integrity. Also, at the seminar, three memorandums of understanding for the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnamese and Korean enterprises were signed. This event added an important milestone in the strong trade cooperation and development between Vietnam and South Korea.