Vietnam has been ranked 16th out of the 30 countries that have received the most remittances in the world, according to the government-run newswire Chinhphu.vn.
The country received a record of more than $8 billion last year.
From 1991 till now, the amount of remittances, mostly in dollars, sent by overseas Vietnamese and guest workers to Vietnam has been increasing continuously.
Vietnam’s inbound remittances doubled from $135 million in 1991 to $285 million in 1995.
The figure increased six-fold to $1.757 billion in 2000, and in 2005 reached $3.8 billion. The remittance only saw a drop to $6.238 billion in 2009 from $7.2 billion in 2008 due to the global recession.
The increase of inbound remittances has had a positive impact to families and relatives in the country, serving to overcome difficulties and improve their lives.
On the macroeconomic scale, the remittances have contributed to reducing the imbalance in the balance of payments, improve forex reserves, and reducing the pressure on exchange rate.
The positive achievement of remittances has come from the government’s open policy in the 1990s and integration of Vietnam after joining the WTO.
The country’s economic growth in 2010 reached 6.78 percent, exceeding targets.
With GDP per capita estimated at $1,160, Vietnam has escaped from the group of low-income nations to enter middle-income countries – a position shift between the two decades.
But Vietnam needs to consider the exploitation and use of remittances on both micro and macro scales. Many recipients of remittances have let the money flow into the black market, posing high risks in managing the forex rate fluctuation.
Banks have not yet taken really effective measures to attract this foreign currency flow.
Besides, the rate difference between black market and official market is bigger, so it is hard to attract remittances to banks.
Print
