Mobilizing Vietnamese Overseas: Outstanding achievements over 60 years of establishment and development
Communist Review - The work of mobilizing overseas Vietnamese occupies an important position in the national mobilization policy, associated with the revolutionary cause of the Party and State and the cause of national solidarity. Basing on specific requirements and tasks in each period, the Party and State have set out tailor-made guidelines and policies in the mobilization of overseas Vietnamese. The Party, State and Vietnamese people have consistently asserted that “overseas Vietnamese make up an integral part of the community of Vietnamese ethnicities”.
Vietnamese overseas in Thailand visiting and extending New Year greetings to President Ho Chi Minh at the Presidential Palace during their first visit on Jan 29, 1960
The year 2019 witnessed Viet Nam’s remarkable socio-economic achievements, partly thanks to the contribution of the Vietnamese expat communities. The year 2019 also marked the 60th anniversary for the State Commission for Overseas Vietnamese. Over the past six decades, the Commission has played an active role in assisting overseas Vietnamese to stabilize their lives, preserving traditional cultural identities; connecting Vietnamese expats to their homeland; and promoting great national solidarity for the common cause of national construction, protection and development. A legal and policy framework has been built to better meet practical interests of Vietnamese overseas communities, creating conditions for them to be bound up with their homeland. Thereby, the role of overseas Vietnamese is undeniable in all aspects of present-day life.
Memorable milestones on the 60-year journey
Vietnamese people started to migrate to foreign countries from very early days. The traces of early migration were recorded in the historical documents which wrote that Prince Lý Long Tường took a group of the Ly Dynasty royal members to Goryeo Kingdom in early 18th century, forming Lý Hoa Sơn family in present-day Korea. In the early 20th century, the number of Vietnamese people migrated overseas and settlements increased rapidly. During the establishment and development of the communities, they suffered from historical turbulences as they settled sporadically in different countries with different political regimes, and economic and social conditions. As a result of international integration and cultural communication, Vietnamese expat communities have undergone massive changes and development. More and more Vietnamese people expatriate for permanent settlement, family reunion, overseas study, contracted labour export, business-making, marriage. Besides, there is a tendency that young expats return to their country of origin to start up business, invest, and take part in cultural and sport activities.
Vietnamese expat communities have been established in historically-related-to-Viet Nam countries such as Cambodia, Laos, China, France, and Vanuatu. From early days of the newly founded nation, President Ho Chi Minh was conscious of mobilizing Vietnamese expats. After peace was gained in the North, many expats wished to return to live in and construct their country. In response to the expats’ aspiration, Prime Minister Phạm Văn Đồng signed Decree No. 416/ND-TTg, establishing the former Central Commission on Overseas Vietnamese, which marked an important milestone in the development of the expat mobilization work. That was the first time an official specialized agency was founded to assist the government to supervise and direct the expat mobilization work. Besides, the commission served as the bridge connecting Vietnamese expats to their home country.
Shortly after being founded, the Central Commission on Overseas Vietnamese was quickly prepared to receive delegations of Vietnamese expats. On January 10th, 1960 on behalf of the Party and State, President Ho Chi Minh directly went to Sau Kho Wharf (present-day Hai Phong Port) to welcome returning expats. From 1960 to 1964, the Commission received, allocated jobs to over 40.000 expats, and helped them to stabilize their life.
In addition, the Commission was concerned with initiating patriotic movement amongst overseas Vietnamese, which partly supported the struggle for national liberation and unification. During this period, the Commission was exceptionally successful in encouraging expats to take part in people-to-people exchanges, actively assisting and coordinating with Viet Nam representative agencies abroad to mobilize people over the world, even Americans and political parties to form progressive people’s front in favour of Viet Nam. As a result, a number of patriotic movements came into being, notably the special movement of donating money for the struggle for national liberation by expats in Thailand.
After national reunification, Viet Nam encountered severe difficulties, due to prior destruction caused by wars, embargoes and economic mismanagement that lead to protracted economic and social crisis during the 1976-1985. More and more Vietnamese people from all walks of life crossed the border to go abroad; hence expat community increased in number, and had diverse political views. In such situation, the Party and State advocated mobilizing the expatriates to participate in post-war reconstruction, national construction and defence, and international appeal against embargo and international isolation.
Since 1986 when Viet Nam started its comprehensive reform (Doi Moi), developed diplomatic relations, and fully normalized relations with partners and major international organizations, the work of mobilizing overseas Vietnamese has recorded remarkable progress associated with Doi Moi. The persistence shown in reform, the positive transformation of the country, along with favorable conditions created for expatriates to return home or send remittances home, etc. have had positive impacts on the Vietnamese overseas communities.
Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng cordially receiving 100 outstanding overseas Vietnamese living in 25 countries and territories at 2018 Xuan Que Huong - Viet Nam’s Shining Future Program _Photo: qdnd.vn
Another milestone which marked the innovation of the planning and implementing the expat mobilization work was that Politburo promulgated Decree No. 08-ND/TW on November 29th, 1993. For the first time, the view that "overseas Vietnamese make up an integral part of the community of Vietnamese ethnicities" was affirmed in the Party document. This laid foundation for the Government to issue Decree No. 74-CP on July 20th, 1994, stipulating the responsibility, scope of authority, and organization of the State Commission for Overseas Vietnamese (SCOV) in substitution for Central Commission on Overseas Vietnamese; and Decree No. 77/CP dated November 6th, 1995, putting the SCOV under the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since then, the work of mobilizing Vietnamese expatriates has become one of four major tasks of Viet Nam's national foreign affairs.
Thanks to its correlation with foreign affairs, the Commission gained impressive achievements in the work of expat mobilization, even in complicated areas where are home to reactionary forces. The SCOV has stepped up the formulation and implementation of policies dedicated to overseas Vietnamese, hence directly contributing to the formation of many legal documents allowing expatriates who are experts and intellectuals to consult the Government on a number of issues regarding regulations on repatriation, immigration, temporary residence, the one-price regime, remittance, estate purchase, reward, investment, business, etc. The above guidelines and policies has been efficiently implemented, bringing practical benefits to overseas Vietnamese, thereby increasingly affirming the Party and State's deep concern for the community, creating proper awareness, close connection, and spurring expats on making positive contributions to the cause of national construction. The mobilization efforts have also eliminated the stigma amongst part of the expat community as a whole who supported the old regime, and limited reactionary actions.
The year 2004 was a landmark in the expat mobilization work, undergoing fundamental changes and creating a new driving force. Reviewing 10 years implementing Resolution No. 08-NQ/TW, the SCOV actively proposed, consulted the Politburo on and built Resolution No. 36-NQ/TW, dated March 26, 2004. This is a historic, comprehensive, large-scale and long-term document expressing the Party’s innovation mindset. The Resolution was then disseminated across the country and to overseas Vietnamese over the globe. The assertion that “Overseas Vietnamese make up an inseparable part of, serve as the resource of the community of Vietnamese ethnicities and an important factor that contributes to promoting cooperation and friendship between Viet Nam and other countries” is well reflected in the Resolution, and universally disseminated amongst agencies and the people. The Party’s mindset over the work of expat mobilization was realized into policies and laws including the 2013 Constitution. Pursuant to Resolution No. 36-NQ/TW, on May 19th, 2015 the Politburo issued Directive No. 45-CT/TW on continuing to implement the Resolution No. 36-NQ/TW in the new context. The Directive underlined focal tasks in the coming time and specially concentrated on addressing shortcomings and related problems.
The work on Overseas Vietnamese has been entering a new phase of strong and comprehensive implimentation in all aspects. Many open policies ensuring the practical interests of overseas Vietnamese such as breakthrough amendments to regulations on nationality, visa exemption, residency, and estate purchase and ownership have created excitement and trust in the community and increased the expatriates’ attachment to their country.
Expatriates’ attachment to their home country
Currently, approximately 4.5 million Vietnamese are living in over 110 countries and territories. 500.000 of them are Bachelor’s Degree holders; many of them are leading engineers and experts in scientific, technological, and financial industries. Several expats even serve as politicians. Every year, some 500 turns of Vietnamese experts and intellectuals take part in scientific and technological activities in their home country. Of the 15 members of Economic Advisory Group, four members are expatriates, which inspires more contributions made by expats.
Inspired by President Ho Chi Minh and other revolutionary leaders’ appeal to high-profile expats support the resistance wars earlier, a number of expat engineers and doctors such as Trần Đại Nghĩa, Võ Quý Huân, and Võ Đình Quỳnh returned to contribute to the national development cause. Notably, Dr. Bùi Hải Hưng, a former Google artificial intelligence (AI) specialist with nearly 100 scientific studies published in professional journals and more than 10 technological patents evaluated in the United States took charge of Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence; Prof. Vũ Hà Văn was appointed as Scientific Director for the Institute of Big Data; and Dr. Philipp Rosler, the former Vice Chancellor of Germany has been elected as chairman of its advisory board of Viet Nam-based VinaCapital Ventures.
A number of overseas Vietnamese businessmen return to their home countries to do business, and forge the country's leading and strong local brands such as Techcombank, Vpbank, Vingroup, Eurowindow, Masan, MyLan Group, Sun Group, to name but a few, contributing to job creation, vocational training, technology transfer, local socio-economic development and increasing tax revenues for the state budget. Since 1993, remittances to Việt Nam have reached some US$17 billion, which helps to balance payments and promotes socio-economic development in many localities.
As “Cultural Ambassadors”, overseas Vietnamese are better sensitized to the importance of maintaining cultural identity and Vietnamese language in the country they settle. Numerous classes that have been organized to teach Vietnamese language for children of second and third generations were highly appreciated. Specially, Vietnamese is recognized as the second language to be taught in high schools in South Korea, Czech Republic, and Taiwan where a large number of overseas Vietnamese settle.
In general, although residing in different geographic areas with different circumstances, the vast majority of overseas Vietnamese have strong feelings of attachment to their homeland, and are part of the "integral" part of Viet Nam. They have made great contributions to consolidating and developing the national solidarity. Many expatriates and organizations with extreme and opposing views have changed their mindset, supported and actively undertook the Party’s guidelines and policies. Besides, the socio-economic situation of the home country is objectively informed to expats by their own channels, creating a positive sentiment amongst the expat communities.
State ministries and agencies have also attracted and mobilized resources and brain power of Vietnamese overseas youngsters. In late November, 2019 the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCYU) Central Committee held the Global Young Vietnamese Intellectual Forum, attracting over 100 young Vietnamese Intellectuals all over the world. The SCOV has been holding numerous events that attract Vietnamese young intellectuals. Viet Nam always welcomes Vietnamese expats to come back and contribute to their home country. Since the beginning of 2020, the Vietnamese expat communities have made important contributions to the country's development in various fields such as investment, trade, science and technology, culture and sports. For example, the Viet Nam men’s national basketball team whose members are mainly overseas Vietnamese won historic medal in 30th Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games 30). Earlier the team defeated Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Cambodia. The key to the success of the team lies in their aspiration to play basketball in the homeland.
In the context of international integration, the expat mobilization work occupies an increasingly important position. With their increased role and stable social status, the expat community as a whole is an inseparable part of Viet Nam; their potentials and resources should be better exploited. However, there remains a small part of the community who adopt extreme views and deep-seated prejudice to the home country. Therefore, it is essential to raise the efficiency of the expat mobilization work in light of Uncle Ho’s appeal to national solidarity: "Children of Dragon, Grandchildren of Immortal/Quickly join hands for long live solidarity”.
The year 2020 witnesses the country’s important events such as the 90th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, the 130th birthday anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh, the 75th anniversary of Viet Nam's National Day, and the 45th anniversary of the Liberation of South Viet Nam and National Reunification Day. Also in the year, Viet Nam shoulders significant responsibility in the regional and global institutions like ASEAN Chairmanship, or as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for 2020-2021. Hence, the work of expat mobilization should be further innovated towards strengthening national solidarity, contributing to the success of Party and State’s foreign affair in the time to come.
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(1) The 2013 Constitution asserted that “Overseas Vietnamese make up an inseparable part of the community of Vietnamese ethnicities. The State of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam shall encourage and create the conditions for overseas Vietnamese to preserve and promote the cultural identity of the Vietnamese nation, maintain close ties with their families and native land, and contribute to the construction of their native land and the country”
This article was published in the Communist Review No. 935 (February 2020)