Promoting the potential of remittances

(Baonghenan) - Overseas Vietnamese remittances through banks in 2015 reached 180 million USD. Most of it is being used by people, most of it for investment in buying houses and vehicles, and the rest for production and business.

The source of remittances is mainly through banks. Photo taken at VIB Bank.

Dien Hoa - Dien Chau is a commune with many effective overseas workers. The commune has 222 workers working (mainly construction workers) in Russia and Angola. Each year, this force sends back home about 46 - 47 billion VND and many households have contributed to building their hometown. In Dien Hoa, remittances are even transferred directly to relatives at home. Most of the families with overseas workers build spacious houses, just look at the villas here to know that someone has gone to work abroad. However, the amount of money sent back to invest in production and business is quite small. Mr. Cao Xuan in hamlet 2 has been working in Angola for nearly 3 years, earning 1,100 USD/month. He has spent more than 600 million VND to build a house, the rest is saved in the bank and he does not know what to invest in. In Nam Cat - Nam Dan, every family goes abroad to work and the number of 2-storey and 3-storey houses in Nam Cat is increasing day by day, everyone wants to build a big and beautiful house because the remittances are quite large. On average, a worker is paid 15 million VND per month, so the remittances sent to Nam Cat commune are about 80 billion VND per year. However, because the main workers have not returned, the remittances are mainly in banks and for shopping for amenities and building houses. Remittances sent to Nghe An are mainly through the labor export route of Nghe people from other countries, diversely from England, Russia, Iraq, Arabia, France, especially from England, Korea, and Japan.

Bank Transactions.

In recent years, labor export has been one of the effective solutions to reduce poverty. According to the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, in 2015, Nghe An had 12,800 workers working in Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Middle Eastern countries. Although the remittances have decreased compared to 2014 (2014 reached 250 million USD), this is a very large number and only a few have been reinvested to bring higher values ​​such as Dung Thuy Company in Son Thanh, Yen Thanh, investing in a garment factory for more than 100 workers from remittances sent from Russia, or the commercial center in Bao Thanh (Yen Thanh) was also built from remittances sent from Russia, Van Xuan taxi company was invested from remittances in Russia, the commercial center in Yen Thanh was invested from remittances from Czechoslovakia...

Currently, some districts have a high number of exported workers such as Yen Thanh, Dien Chau, Do Luong... For example, in Do Luong, each year the district has 1,500 people going to work abroad and in Do Luong district there are currently more than 6,700 people working abroad for a limited period, remittances sent back each year reach about 15-20 million USD. Currently, the source of remittances is mainly sent back through commercial banks such as the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, BIDV, VP Bank...

Dien Hoa Dien Chau people returned from working abroad and built big and beautiful houses. Photo by Le Hoai Thung

Remittances are one of the important resources for socio-economic development, especially creating jobs, stabilizing people's lives, contributing to the construction of new rural areas in Nghe An. However, the amount of remittances sent to Nghe An for investment and development is not much, the accumulated capital after building houses, buying cars, and giving to relatives is mainly in the bank. Employment for people returning from working abroad is still a difficult problem for both the workers and the locality.

Currently, Nghe An province has attracted a number of investment projects of Nghe An people who have been living and doing business abroad, such as the Vicentra Commercial Center and Office project of Mr. Nguyen Canh Son, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Euro Windows Company (used to live in Russia), the Bai Lu Tourist Area project of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bai Lu Investment and Business Joint Stock Company (used to live in the US), Van Xuan University of Technology of Mr. Nguyen Lu Thuy (Poland), Minh Anh - Kim Lien Garment Company, Mr. Le Luong Nguyen (Korea), establishing an elevator factory in Nghi Phu... These projects not only invest in expanding the technical infrastructure of the province but also contribute effectively to job creation, social security and budget collection for the locality.

Chau Lan