Socialist Republic of Vietnam

(VNA) Present at the launching ceremony in Washington DC on April 12 together with many overseas Vietnamese business people were Minister, Chairman of the Government Office Nguyen Xuan Phuc and CEOs of a number of top Vietnamese business groups who are accompanying Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in his trip to the US to attend the Nuclear Security Summit on April 12-13.

BAOOV President Pham Nhat Vuong said that the association decided to form a branch in the US to promote business opportunities in Vietnam to the Americans as well as the Vietnamese American business community.

(VNA) The Vietnamese Embassy in France and Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a meeting in Paris on Dec. 20 to honour overseas Vietnamese communities and individuals who fervently studied and followed the moral example of President Ho Chi Minh.

(VNA) Hanoi will host the first ever conference of overseas Vietnamese worldwide from November 20-22, according to the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese.
The conference, under the theme of “For a community of solidarity and strength, contributing to national construction”, expects to see the participation of 1,000 delegates, including 650 overseas Vietnamese, who represent Vietnamese communities in more than 100 countries and territories over the world.

Ambassador Le Cong Phung on Monday has expressed his sadness and sympathy over last Friday traffic accident in Sherman, Texas which claimed over a dozen of lives of fellow Vietnamese and injured many others.

"I was deeply saddened by the news. My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims", Mr. Phung said in his letter sent to Houston Mayor Bill White.

A new website on visa exemption for overseas Vietnamese was launched by the Foreign Ministry on Aug. 29.

The new portal in both Vietnamese and English will help overseas Vietnamese to better understand the State decision on visa exemptions and guide procedures to make applications for visa exemption certificates.

Application forms for visa exemption can also be downloaded from this website.

The PM on August 17 signed Decision 135/2007/QĐ-TTg promulgating the regulations on visa exemption for overseas Vietnamese.

Accordingly, beneficiaries of the Decision include Vietnamese nationals residing abroad, foreigners who are Vietnamese citizens' spouses and children, overseas Vietnamese holding foreign passports or a foreign-issued permanent residence certificate (PRC) with the validity of at least six months since the date of entrance.

Vietnam would decide on visa exemption for Vietnamese holding foreign passports as soon as possible, President Nguyen Minh Triet said Friday.

Speaking to over 1,000 Vietnamese expatriates at a meeting in Hanoi, he said the government appreciated their contributions to the homeland.

The Vietnamese diaspora worldwide had played a major role in the country’s achievements in the past few decades.

President Nguyen Minh Triet affirmed that the overseas Vietnamese community has played a decisive factor in the country's successes in the past decades at a get-together held in Ha Noi on Feb. 9 for over 1,000 Vietnamese expats who have returned home for family reunions during the traditional new year festival (Tet).

The Vietnamese government is trying to get rid of red tape and corruption and create a transparent business environment to encourage more Vietnamese expatriates to invest in their motherland, an official said.

Speaking at a conference which ended in Danang Friday, standing vice chairman of the Government Office, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, exhorted overseas Vietnamese to trust the country’s reform policy and continue to contribute to its development.