Vietnam’s remittances exceed expectation to top $11 bln
Vietnam’s remittances exceed expectation to top $11 bln
Banks and remittance companies all say the remittance inflows they have received in 2013 are far greater than earlier predicted, with the country expected to receive US$11 billion in remittances this year.
In Ho Chi Minh City alone, the remittance inflows are estimated at $4.8 billion.
Dong A Money Transfer, a subsidiary of DongA Bank, has set a modest remittance target of only $1.35 billion for 2013, but it turns out that the real figure can be as much as $1.5 billion, according to deputy director Trinh Hoai Nam.
Nam said the situations in the US and the EU, the main remittance sources of Vietnam, have made positive changes over the last few months, resulting in greater amounts of money sent back to the country by guest workers or overseas Vietnamese.
Sacomrex, another remittance company, said it may receive some $1.7 billion worth of remittances this year, exceeding the target by 15 percent.
Inflows from the guest workers post the strongest growth, a company representative said.
Money sent by guest workers to their relatives in Vietnam is still too modest to compare with remittances from the US, Canada, and Australia, but it has increasingly become an important source of remittance, he remarked.
Nguyen Thi Nhu Ly, Regional Director of Western Union, Indochina, said the remittances are sent back to Vietnam from more countries than before.
In 1994, remittances transferred via Western Union were from only 16 nations, but the figure is now more than 200 countries and territories, Ly said.
In a report released in October, the World Bank said Vietnam continues to be in the top ten countries which receive the largest amounts of remittances in 2013 with a total inflow of $10.6 billion, a 6.5 percent increase compared to 2012.
The report, Migration and Remittance Flows: Recent Trends and Outlook for 2013-20161, indicates that the top recipients of officially recorded remittances for 2013 are India (with an estimated $71 billion), China ($60 billion), and the Philippines ($26 billion).
Other large recipients include Mexico, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Ukraine.
According to the Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, some 4.5 million Vietnamese are living in more than 100 nations and territories around the globe. There are also some 500,000 Vietnamese guest workers.
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