A group of American congressional representatives, including Vietnamese American congressperson Joseph Cao (Cao Quang Anh), are now on a visit to Vietnam.

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Thanh Son met with Mr. Joseph Cao on January 5 to discuss issues of common concern and debate.

On January 4, Son noted at a press conference that around 500,000 overseas Vietnamese of Viet Kieu will return to Vietnam during Tet (lunar New Year).

According to Son, the recently successful conference of overseas Vietnamese, the biggest so far, has greatly enhanced Vietnam’s sound policy towards Viet Kieu.

Son said that he doesn’t have official statistics of overseas remittances in 2009, but the figure would be a little less than 2008 due to the economic crisis.

He said that the financial crisis affected Viet Kieu in developed countries, but those in Eastern Europe were not affected heavily. “Therefore the volume of overseas remittances in 2009 will fall compared to last year, but not by much,” Son confirmed.

Last year Viet Kieu sent home more than $7 billion.

Son announced that over 300 Viet Kieu will attend a 50^th anniversary celebration of President Ho Chi Minh welcoming the first ship to arrive in Hai Phone that brought 992 Viet Kieu from Thailand to Vietnam.

Duc Cat - Xuan Linh