Foreign remittances to Ho Chi Minh City soared by 43% to a record US$9.46 billion last year.

 An employee counts U.S. banknotes at a bank in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Tung 

It accounted for half of all remittances to the country and was 2.7 times the foreign direct investment the city received.

Asia accounted for 50.5% of the remittances, up 144% from 2022.

The share of the U.S. dropped from 29% to 10%.

Nguyen Duc Lenh, deputy director of the State Bank of Vietnam’s HCMC office said the booming labor market, services and tourism in Asia and its political and economic stability helped increase remittances.

Remittances to Vietnam between 1993 and 2022 were worth $190 billion, nearly the same as the FDI disbursed during the period.

Some six million Vietnamese live overseas and the number is increasing by 5% annually, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

They live in 130 countries and territories, 80% of them in developed countries.

Quynh Trang (Source: e.vnexpress.net)