VietNamNet
Bridge – Giving up good positions, high salaries and stable working environment
to return to Vietnam, overseas Vietnamese (Viet Kieu) experts share the dream
to conquer challenges and build a stronger country.

Giving up good positions, high salaries and stable working environment to return to Vietnam, overseas Vietnamese (Viet Kieu) experts share the dream to conquer challenges and build a stronger country.

At the meeting of overseas Vietnamese on
the occasion of the lunar New Year 2011 in HCM
City on January 22, hundreds of
overseas Vietnamese gathered at the Independence
Palace to share their
thoughts and feelings.

Many overseas Vietnamese experts say that
they were right to return home to work.

Giving up a key position in a multinational
group based in Hong Kong to join the FPT Joint Stock Company as the strategic
manager, Vietnamese Canadian Nguyen Huu Thai Hoa says that many people could
not understand his decision to bring his family to Vietnam. However, Hoa did not doubt
this was a right decision.

He says preparations took him two years as
he wanted to choose an appropriate moment to return. “I will be old in the next
10-15 years and I may be unable to help. Returning home at this time is my
opportunity,” he says.

As the one who makes the development
strategy for FPT for the next 15 years and will take charge of realizing the
group’s aspiration to go out to the world, Hoa says that Vietnam is now a big market and a
fertile land for the young to show their talents.

Hoa explains that Vietnam is facing many challenges
but it also has many opportunities. The latest and most modern technologies are
sold in Hong Kong, Singapore,
China and Vietnam. Europeans use brand goods
but their designs and technology can’t change as fast as in Asia.
Producing goods for this market is a big opportunity but Vietnam has not caught it yet.

“Young people can compete for this market.
The country has a big chance to attract young overseas Vietnamese,” Hoa said.

He said the average age of Vietnamese
population is 26 which is the best age for work. That of Japan is 60. Many other Asian
countries can’t compete with Vietnam
in terms of the average age of their population. “Old people can’t work a dozen
of hours a day,” he said.

Returning home and joining FPT group was a
big decision in Hoa’s life. FPT currently has over a dozen of thousands of
young employees, most of them university graduates  in information technology. “I’m glad to join
young people and I believe that they are able to change the country. Vietnam’s
biggest strength is in its people,” Hoa emphasizes.

Nguyen Nhu Khue, a former expert at a
multinational group in Germany
and Singapore, returned to Vietnam
15 years ago. “I’m happy to have returned home to do business because in the
development of the country, there is my contribution though it is as small as a
grain of sand,” Khue said.

Khue now runs the Lotus Chemical Technology
company, which operates in the plastic industry. He said that overseas
Vietnamese now have more positive view about Vietnam and they don’t want to
stand on the sideline during the country’s development.

According to him, it is very difficult for
overseas Vietnamese to return and re-integrate into the local community because
of the difference in the way of thinking and because they don’t have many
friends in Vietnam.

He recommended young overseas Vietnamese
who want to return home to establish vast networks of contact.

With a doctorate in Agricultural Sciences
Do Ngoc Quynh, Vietnamese German, said: “I’m very happy to return to Vietnam
because I can help farmers in my home country”.

As an expert in biogas, who worked at the
Can Tho University in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, Quynh has worked in the program to
eradicate hunger and reduce poverty for farmers for the last 26 years through
promoting the garden-pond-pigsty and biogas model. After working in Germany for 20 years, Quynh and his family
returned to Vietnam
in 1985. Though he has retired, farmers still call him with a dear nickname –
Mr. Quynh Biogas.

“I was born in a farmer family so my only
dream is how to help farmers to improve their lives. Therefore I always try to
find out what they need, so I can help them,” Quynh said.

Director of Minh Tran company, Dr. Nguyen
Tri Dung, a Vietnamese Japanese, strongly believes in the youth of Vietnam.
Dung says that each person nurtures their dreams to develop Vietnam. “Any overseas Vietnamese
who has projects to develop Vietnam
based on modern industry, I would like to join you to realize this dream
together,” he said.

PV