Asia - biggest source of overseas remittances to HCM City in 2023

Inward remittances to HCM City rise 43.3% year-on-year to 9.46 billion USD in 2023. (Photo: VNA)

Money sent from Asian countries made up 50.5% of the total overseas remittances to Ho Chi Minh City last year, Vietnam’s largest economic hub, a massive 143.8% spike year-on-year, according to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)’s branch in the city.

Inward remittances to HCM City rose 43.3% year-on-year to 9.46 billion USD in 2023, a record high over the past decade and accounting for more than half of the national total.

Nguyen Duc Lenh, deputy director of the branch, said 2023 remittances were 2.7 times the volume of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow into the city and equivalent to 14% of its gross regional domestic product (GRDP) the same year.

The flow of remittances is associated with the growing trend of working abroad, the branch said, adding that the post-pandemic recovery of the labour, service, and tourism markets in Asian countries, along with a stable economic and political environment, has positive effects on the remittances from the region.

Besides, Vietnam’s steady macro-economy, friendly business environment and bustling cultural, tourism and sporting events have encouraged remittances, Lenh said, adding that the development of remittance payment networks and services of commercial banks and businesses also helped attract remittances to the country in general and the city in particular in 2023.

With approximately six million Vietnamese nationals living abroad, remittances sent to Vietnam from 1993 to 2022 have amounted to 190 billion USD, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 2023, the World Bank estimated that Vietnam received approximately 14 billion USD in remittances, while this figure reached a record number of 19 billion USD in 2022.

Vietnam has been among the global top 10 recipients of remittances for many years, with overseas Vietnamese residing in more than 130 countries and territories, and around 600,000 of them with undergraduate or higher degrees./.