A project that focuses on policies and measures to attract Vietnamese experts and intellectuals living abroad will be completed in 2011 and submitted to the Secretariat of the Party’s Central Committee, said the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese (OVs).

At the December 6 press briefing, Pham Hai Bang, Head of the OV committee’s Culture and Information Department, revealed that the committee will propose building an ordinance on OVs-related work to create a more comprehensive legal corridor for Ovs and policies that offer OVs retirement and social insurance when they return home.

The committee will continue to boost administrative reforms and finalise regulations on immigration and citizenship, permanent residence and nationality registration to create the best possible conditions for OVs to visit their relatives, go on holiday and do business in Vietnam, said Bang.

The committee will also bolster the development of OVs organisations worldwide, he added.

A wide range of programmes will be held next year, including the “Homeland Spring” programme which is expected to take place at the UNESCO-recognised Thang Long Imperial Citadel on the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival, to welcome OVs visiting during the Tet holiday and other great celebrations and summer camps for young OVs.

Two delegations of OVs will return homeland to celebrate the 100 th year that late President Ho Chi Minh left Nha Rong Wharf to seek ways of liberating the country and the day he went to Pac Bo in the northern province of Cao Bang from abroad 60 years ago.

According to the committee, 4 million OVs are living in 103 countries and territories worldwide, of which 520,000 returned to their homeland in the first 11 months of this year. In 2010, overseas remittance is estimated at 7.2 billion USD, up 400 million USD over 2009.

There are more than 3,200 OVs-funded projects being carried out in the country, costing nearly 5.7 billion USD.

The OVs community has also donated over 16.6 billion VND to support local people living in difficulty and victims of natural disasters.

Source: VOV