Viet Kieu investments in the homeland will considerably increase in the near future, according to Nguyen Chon Trung, Chairman of the National Committee for Overseas Vietnamese in HCM City.
Vietnam will begin implementing its commitments to the WTO in early 2007. How do you assess the role of Viet Kieu in the next stage of development of Vietnam?
I think that the factor that plays the decisive role in global economic integration is human resources. Vietnam needs more and more experts in many fields, and it will take much time to have senior experts. Meanwhile, Viet Kieu are a large and powerful source of experts. They all have been trained and worked abroad; this gives them good knowledge and experiences. If they want, they can make contributions to the development of the home country.
Human resources, capital and technologies are the things we need. Vietnam has committed to opening the agriculture market, which will pave the way for foreign made products to overflow into Vietnam. Viet Kieu intellectuals, for example, can help raise the competitiveness of Vietnam-made products by transferring biological technologies which can help raise the capacity of crops.
I know a Viet Kieu biologist who has transferred many cultivating techniques to domestic enterprises in the last few years which has helped much in raising the yield and quality of plantations in the deltas.
In addition, Viet Kieu can also act as an important bridge connecting Vietnam and foreign investors thanks to their relations worldwide. Viet Kieu themselves played a very important role in the decision of the US-based Intel and Renessas to make investment in Vietnam.
Are Viet Kieu investors interested in the opportunities to be brought about by Vietnam’s WTO membership?
When integrating into the world, Vietnam will have to open its door to foreign investors, including Viet Kieu investors.
In 2006, Vietnam successfully attracted many investment projects from Viet Kieu. According to the HCM City Planning and Investment Department, by the end of November, 380 Viet Kieu invested projects had been licenced, capitalised at VND3,210bil, double the figure of the previous year.
I have realised that Viet Kieu are very interested that Vietnam has joined the WTO. Until now, Vietnam has not attracted much investment from Viet Kieu, not because they lack capital, but due to the lack of transparent policies applied to them. I can assure you that the investment from Viet Kieu will soar in the time to come thanks to Vietnam’s WTO membership and the opening of the policies on Viet Kieu.
As far as I know, HCM City authorities are launching several programmes aiming to attract Viet Kieu intellectuals. Could you please tell us about the programmes?
The National Committee for Overseas Vietnamese has proposed five programmes: 1. easing procedures 2. improving entry-exit policies 3. improving policies relating to land and accommodation 4. adjusting policies on attracting Viet Kieu intellectuals 5. cooperating with the national university to call on Viet Kieu to return home to train Vietnamese intellectuals.
As you may know, Silicon Valley in the US gathers a lot of Viet Kieu experts in information technology (IT), while Vietnam lacks IT experts. You may know that India has been successful with its policy to attract IT experts to work for India.
We are preparing a conference gathering Viet Kieu intellectual investors which will be held early next month. We aim to introduce new policies of Vietnam and call for investment and support from Viet Kieu intellectuals.
Source: TBKTVN
