Remittances to Vietnam hit record high of US$16 billion in 2023

Many countries have begun to remove immigration restrictions, creating conditions for Vietnamese residents to work abroad who then send more money back, analysed experts, explaining one of the reasons that remittances increased sharply last year compared to the previous years.

This is a good piece of news because the high sum has been received in the context of the global economic fallouts, said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dinh Trong Thinh, a senior lecturer at the Vietnam National Academy of Finance.

This is a large source of additional capital for investment in the domestic private economic sector, greatly contributing to ensuring the lives of many families and supporting social security in the country, added the economist.

Sharing the same view, Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu, a finance and banking expert, said that the sum is remitted by Vietnamese expatriates and Vietnamese guest workers abroad that supports national socio-economic development, as well as the central bank’s monetary policy management.

Currently, there are nearly 6 million Vietnamese people living, studying and working in 130 countries and territories worldwide. Ho Chi Minh City alone has about 2.9 million residents living and working abroad.

Notably, the largest source of remittances flowing into Vietnam comes from Asian countries. Among them, the three largest labour markets of Vietnam are Japan, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan.

Nguyen Duc Lenh, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City branch of the State Bank of Vietnam, said Asia is a region that maintains economic and political stability along with increasingly expanding economic relations and labour cooperation with Vietnam. This market will therefore have an impact on remittance growth in the coming time.

Meanwhile, for the US and European markets, it is forecast that the amount of remittances to Vietnam will be lower than in the Asian region due to political instability, including the prolonged Russia - Ukraine and Israel - Hamas conflicts that will impact the growth of remittances sent to Vietnam from overseas Vietnamese.

Despite a challenging global economic landscape, Vietnam continues to stand resilient as one of the top 10 recipients of overseas remittances worldwide, behind India, Mexico, China, the Philippines, France, Germany and Ukraine, according to the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief and the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD).

This year, the amount of remittances to Vietnam is expected to increase by about 20% thanks to the global economic recovery.