President Nguyen Minh Triet (3rd R) poses for photos with representatives at the conference

Overseas Vietnamese hope that the encouragement they receive from the Vietnamese government in laws and polices does not remain on paper.

Converging in the capital city from 52 countries and territories worldwide, the large number of Viet kieu were from America, Thailand, France and Germany.

At the opening ceremony, Vietnamese leaders and government officials said the Viet kieu were an “inseparable” part of the country’s socio-economic development and could play a vital role in maintaining good relationships between Vietnam and other countries.

“The overseas community are the blood and bones of this country,” said President Nguyen Minh Triet in his opening speech.

However, there were still problems of some not being able to achieve a stable legal status abroad or others committing actions that “go against the benefit of the country” because of a lack of information, Triet said.

He hoped the conference will suggest relevant policies to bridge the overseas community with those back home.

Nguyen Thanh Son, head of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese and deputy minister of foreign affairs, said that Vietnam hopes to continue supporting its overseas community through preferable policies relating to land, housing, citizenship and immigration for them to live, work and do business back home.

The committee is also working on having Vietnamese taught at schools in communities abroad where there’s a large Vietnamese community; and expanding the number of Vietnamese Culture Centers in an effort to preserve Vietnamese culture and tradition abroad, especially among the second or third generation of Viet kieu.

Thirty-two-year-old Duc Khuong Nguyen left Vietnam in 2000 for France after graduating from the Hanoi Commercial University.

Now an associate professor of finance and head of the Department of Economics, Finance, and Law at the ISC Paris of School of Management, Khuong said among many Vietnamese intellectuals who left the country mostly after 1996 for study-related purposes in France, the desire to work in Vietnam is always there.

“I’ve read about our policies to encourage overseas intellectuals to return home and work but the question is where should they be placed and whether they can find an appropriate position,” Khuong said on the sidelines of the conference.

He noted that qualified Viet kieu would not want to start at zero, meaning low-level positions. He said Viet kieu coming back to work in Vietnam would depend on “whether we give them enough responsibilities.”

Nguyen Van Tho, a well-known novel writer and an overseas Vietnamese from Germany, said for the past 12 years, he has been returning to Vietnam to work with writers in the country.

He said most of the overseas community abroad hopes the government’s policies will be implemented effectively so that they can reflect truly Vietnam’s goodwill toward its overseas citizens.

Reported by Huong Le