Remittances and policy implications to attract remittance flows to Vietnam

Abstract

 Vietnam is one of the largest recipients of remittances worldwide. In 2012 it was ranked the ninth on the World Bank’s list of the 10 countries that attracted the most remittances. Importantly, remittances have represented one of the largest sources of external private finance for Vietnam. Furthermore, remittances have been more stable in comparison with other financial flows such as foreign direct investment (FDI) and official development assistance (ODA). In some years, the share of remittances in gross domestic product (GDP) is larger than that of FDI in GDP. Notably, between 2002 and 2013, the remittances to GDP ratio far exceeded the ratio of ODA to GDP. Therefore, remittances have played an important role in promoting the Vietnamese economy. 

Based on the country’s situation, this paper proposes policy implications in order to attract more remittances flows to the country. The rest of this paper is organized as follows Section 2 discusses remittance flows to the country from 2000 to 2013; and Section 3 provides policy implications.