Overseas Vietnamese return to build a common home

Overseas Vietnamese are an inseparable part of the nation. They are the financial and intellectual resources and at the same time "cultural ambassadors" contributing to the construction and development of the country.

President Vo Van Thuong visited physicist Dr. Nguyen Duy Ha during his visit to Austria in July 2023. Deputy Foreign Minister Le Thi Thu Hang and Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy attended the meeting - Photo: VNA

On a spring day, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang - Chairwoman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese (UBNV) - gave Tuoi Tre an open interview about overseas Vietnamese.

I hope that the Vietnamese community abroad will be truly united, and only then can it truly be strong.

Ms. LE THI THU HANG (Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs )

Tet means hope

* For the overseas Vietnamese community, what is the meaning of Spring in the homeland and community Tet, madam?

Ms. LE THI THU HANG - Photo: NGUYEN KHANH

- There is a very good saying: "Tet means hope". For Vietnamese people, the traditional Tet is a time to put aside the worries and concerns of the old year and enter the new year with a new mindset and lots of hope. However, not all Vietnamese people abroad are lucky enough to have the opportunity to return to their homeland to reunite with their families. Understanding that, Vietnamese representative agencies abroad annually organize Spring Homeland and Community Tet programs for overseas Vietnamese in the host country, including international students and temporary workers. During the four community Tet seasons that I participated in organizing while working at the Vietnamese Embassy in London (UK), overseas Vietnamese all confided that they only looked forward to Tet all year long to step into the embassy, ​​like returning to a common home, enjoying the warm taste of Tet. Vietnamese students or workers who live far away and cannot come to the embassy also organize Tet activities themselves, inviting friends and local people to join in the fun. This is also an opportunity to introduce the traditions and cultural beauty of Vietnam. * How do overseas Vietnamese respond to activities such as Spring in the homeland, the overseas Vietnamese delegation visiting Truong Sa island district and DK1 platform, attending the Hung King's death anniversary, Vietnam Summer Camp...? - Since the Politburo 's Resolution 36 on overseas Vietnamese affairs, we have had many activities to connect overseas Vietnamese with their homeland and connect overseas Vietnamese with each other. People are looking forward to these events, and more and more people are registering to attend. The Committee tries to organize activities with the maximum number of delegates possible, but in reality, it still cannot meet all the needs of overseas Vietnamese. We can mention Spring in the homeland, Hung King's death anniversary, Youth Summer Camp, visiting Truong Sa and DK1 platform... In 2016, I joined the overseas Vietnamese delegation to visit and encourage officers and soldiers in Truong Sa archipelago and DK1 platform. I feel that the people were very moved when they came to the place, witnessed with their own eyes every inch of the sacred land of the Fatherland being firmly protected, shook hands or hugged the young soldiers, like their own children, who are guarding day and night to protect the sovereignty and territory of the country. This program also had a great impact. When they returned, they established clubs that love the sea and islands, the Truong Sa Club, and most recently the Union of Truong Sa Clubs in Europe. Our overseas Vietnamese also organized photo exhibitions on Vietnam's sovereignty over the sea and islands. Last summer in Paris (France), overseas Vietnamese held for the first time a seminar on Vietnam's sovereignty in the East Sea. In addition, they also contributed materially, such as donating canoes to the islands, which they named "sovereignty boats". Or the Vietnam Summer Camp event, which has been held 18 times, with the participation of more than 2,100 overseas Vietnamese youths around the world. Returning to their homeland, they participated in many meaningful activities such as visiting Hung Temple, offering incense at Truong Son National Martyrs' Cemetery, paying tribute to Vietnamese Heroic Mothers, doing charity work... The young people were extremely moved when visiting "red addresses", visiting cemeteries with tens of thousands of martyrs' graves, some of whom sacrificed their lives when they were just their age. I have seen tears on their faces many times, many of them are mixed-race with Vietnamese and foreign blood. Returning to their home country, they themselves conveyed their love for their homeland to their peers and foreign friends. * The Spring Homeland program in Vietnam on the occasion of Tet is always awaited by overseas Vietnamese. What are the highlights this year? - In 2024, the Spring Homeland program will be held for the third time in Ho Chi Minh City. Not only is Ho Chi Minh City the largest economic , commercial and financial center in the country, it is also a locality with many cultural and historical imprints and the locality with the largest number of overseas Vietnamese in the country with about 2.8 million people. Ho Chi Minh City suffered very heavy losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, but with its inherent resilience, Ho Chi Minh City quickly recovered and stood up. We hope that Spring Homeland is a gift, gratitude and encouragement from the whole country, the whole nation, including the overseas Vietnamese community to the Party Committee, government and people of Ho Chi Minh City. Overseas Vietnamese will participate in many meaningful activities to witness the rapid development of the country and Ho Chi Minh City such as visiting Thu Duc smart city, experiencing the subway system. In particular, the people, along with President Vo Van Thuong and his wife, will perform the traditional incense offering and carp releasing rituals at the Ho Chi Minh Museum - Nha Rong Wharf, offer flowers at the statue of President Ho Chi Minh, and attend the art exchange program with the theme "Ho Chi Minh City - Continuing the shining heroic epic" at the Thong Nhat Hall. I believe that this is a rich and unique program, bringing a lot of information as well as emotions to overseas Vietnamese. * How are Vietnamese people today preserving, expressing, and introducing the national cultural identity, including the traditional Tet, to the host community? - There is a famous saying "As long as there is culture, there is a nation". I believe that culture must first be preserved in the family, then to the community and the whole society. Each overseas Vietnamese is a daily living ambassador in the host country. There is a story that touched me very much about an overseas Vietnamese born in the US, belonging to the 8X generation. Her family lived alone in a small town with no Vietnamese people. Although she sometimes encountered racial discrimination while going to school, she was always proud of her Vietnamese roots thanks to her education and the preservation of family traditions. Every Tet, the whole family had to travel far to buy things and food to celebrate the New Year. Now, having grown up and succeeded in her career, with a position in the US Government system, she had the opportunity to visit Hanoi. She shared with me that the first time she returned to Vietnam and to Hanoi, she was very emotional, feeling so close and dear, as if there was an invisible thread connecting her to her roots. She will continue to teach Vietnamese traditions and culture to her daughter.

Preserving culture also means preserving and conserving the mother tongue. At the end of August 2023, I had the opportunity to go to the capital Bratislava, Slovakia, to attend a ceremony to celebrate the Vietnamese community being recognized as the 14th ethnic minority in this country. The moment of saluting the sacred national flag to the majestic sound of the Tien Quan Ca song sung by a young opera singer of Vietnamese origin, I was filled with emotions. Also last year, I visited Vietnam Town of the Vietnamese in Udon Thani. The nearly 1km-long neighborhood, with 99% of Thai people of Vietnamese origin, will be a place to develop business activities, promote Vietnamese culture and tourism, contributing to strengthening the friendly relationship between Vietnam and Thailand. This is also the first Vietnam Town in the world .

Overseas Vietnamese delegation visits Truong Sa and DK1 platform in April 2023 - Photo: baochinhphu.vn

Handing over "a piece of land to plant a stake" * In this year's foreign affairs activities, many people were impressed by President Vo Van Thuong's visit to physicist Dr. Nguyen Duy Ha at his home when he arrived in Austria. What message does this meeting convey, Madam? - During the program of visiting foreign countries, despite their busy schedules, Vietnamese leaders always take time to meet the overseas Vietnamese community, even visiting them at their homes. Through these activities, our people feel the care and closeness of Vietnamese leaders. I accompanied President Vo Van Thuong on his state visit to Austria in July 2023 and directly witnessed the touching moment when the President visited the family of physicist Dr. Nguyen Duy Ha - a quantum physicist and professor at the Vienna University of Technology. When listening to Dr. Ha share that as long as there is a scientific idea, even if it is "crazy", there are always people willing to invest in him to implement it, the President told Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy that science requires commitment and sometimes requires "risky" investment, which is also an experience for Vietnam. Dr. Ha himself was also moved to express his willingness to contribute his scientific achievements to Vietnam. Such meetings have affirmed the consistent policy of the Party and State in considering the overseas Vietnamese community as an inseparable part of the nation, demonstrating the care and concern of the Party and State leaders for overseas Vietnamese. This is also a huge resource that perhaps we have not yet fully appreciated and promoted. In terms of economic resources, there are currently many successful overseas businessmen investing in their homeland. As of November 2023, there were 421 projects with a total investment capital of 1.722 billion USD in more than 40 provinces and cities. In 2022, despite difficulties, Vietnam is still in the top 10 countries receiving the largest remittances, estimated at about 19 billion USD. In terms of intellectual resources, there are currently about 600,000 overseas Vietnamese with university degrees or higher, out of 6 million overseas Vietnamese. 80% of the community lives in developed countries. Many Vietnamese are working in important and pioneering fields such as nanotechnology, quantum, working in Silicon Valley, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), teaching at many prestigious universities. * So how to further promote the upcoming overseas intellectual resources? - The International Center for Interdisciplinary Science and Education in Quy Nhon of Professor Tran Thanh Van (overseas Vietnamese in France, President of the Vietnam Rencontres du Vietnam) has been supported by the Government with a mechanism for land use. The professor once shared with me his hope that the center will be a place to attract Vietnamese intellectuals abroad to work and contribute, so that foreign scientists can come and exchange with Vietnamese scientists. He also has a concern that big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are lacking science gardens for children to read books and develop a love for science. With intellectuals with such enthusiastic initiatives, we must create appropriate mechanisms and incentives for them to contribute. President Vo Van Thuong, in a meeting with overseas Vietnamese, once shared the thoughts of Vietnamese people that wherever they are, they are always worried about having "a piece of land to settle down" to settle down and make a living. Thus, if we want our people to return to invest or participate in scientific research to directly contribute to building and protecting the country, we must have policies on housing and land, creating certain favorable conditions for overseas Vietnamese. We also need to create conditions, a working environment and a suitable treatment regime for intellectuals returning home to teach and research. Vietnamese universities have been granted financial autonomy, so they also need to be proactive and autonomous in recruiting and recruiting overseas Vietnamese intellectuals not only to teach but more importantly to do scientific research. The newly opened National Innovation Center, I think we need special policies to attract intellectuals to come here to work and do research. Currently, there are many intellectual and expert associations in countries such as Australia, England, France, most recently the European Innovation Network, which gathers many talented and enthusiastic young people. Hopefully, in addition to earning a living, living and working in the host country, our Vietnamese intellectuals will contribute to the country through co-chairing research topics, participating remotely or sharing their research results...

Overseas Vietnamese youth visit Vietnamese Heroic Mothers in Quang Tri, within the framework of the Vietnam Summer Camp 2023 - Photo: VIETNAM SUMMER CAMP

6 million and 19 billion

Currently, there are nearly 6 million Vietnamese living in more than 130 countries and territories, including 600,000 intellectuals with university degrees or higher. In 2022, remittances to Vietnam reached nearly 19 billion USD. In 2023, remittances to Ho Chi Minh City alone reached about 9 billion USD, nearly three times the FDI (3.4 billion USD). Remittances in 20 years are equivalent to the disbursed foreign direct investment (FDI).

The affectionate word "mother"

In 2022, the Prime Minister approved the project to Honor the Vietnamese Language in the Vietnamese community abroad. Accordingly, September 8th of each year was chosen as Vietnamese Language Honor Day. According to Deputy Minister Le Thi Thu Hang, Vietnamese Language Honor Day is a breakthrough project to concretize the Party and State's policy on Vietnamese language work. In 2023, the Committee also built a Vietnamese bookshelf to serve the Vietnamese community in a number of countries such as Japan, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary... During his official visit to Thailand and Laos last December, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue directly presented thousands of Vietnamese language learning books to overseas Vietnamese. "When accompanying Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan on her visit to Norway, we had the opportunity to visit and present the Oslo City Library with a number of Vietnamese and bilingual English-Vietnamese books. I was extremely surprised to learn that the library also has more than 2,000 Vietnamese books. They really appreciated the gift from the delegation, because the Vietnamese and Norwegian people have in common a love of reading. Giving books to the community means we also want the community to preserve and promote the nation's tradition of loving to read. Books are knowledge, not only teaching letters but also teaching humanistic values ​​and morality of the nation through fairy tales, books are songs, history, culture" - she said. According to the female leader of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, books are not only for the Vietnamese community but also for those who love Vietnamese culture and Vietnamese people and develop a love for the Vietnamese language. "Therefore, we pay attention to giving bilingual books so that people can access them more easily. I am still struggling with books and the Vietnamese language. In the future, the People's Committee will order books from publishers according to the wishes and needs of overseas Vietnamese, not just giving away available books" - she shared.

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