Viet Kieu praise Vietnam’s development opportunity

Giving up good positions, high salaries and stable working environment to return to Vietnam, overseas Vietnamese (Viet Kieu) experts share the dream to conquer challenges and build a stronger country.

At the meeting of overseas Vietnamese on the occasion of the lunar New Year 2011 in HCM City on January 22, hundreds of overseas Vietnamese gathered at the Independence Palace to share their thoughts and feelings.

Many overseas Vietnamese experts say that they were right to return home to work.

Giving up a key position in a multinational group based in Hong Kong to join the FPT Joint Stock Company as the strategic manager, Vietnamese Canadian Nguyen Huu Thai Hoa says that many people could not understand his decision to bring his family to Vietnam. However, Hoa did not doubt this was a right decision.

He says preparations took him two years as he wanted to choose an appropriate moment to return. “I will be old in the next 10-15 years and I may be unable to help. Returning home at this time is my opportunity,” he says.

As the one who makes the development strategy for FPT for the next 15 years and will take charge of realizing the group’s aspiration to go out to the world, Hoa says that Vietnam is now a big market and a fertile land for the young to show their talents.

Hoa explains that Vietnam is facing many challenges but it also has many opportunities. The latest and most modern technologies are sold in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Vietnam. Europeans use brand goods but their designs and technology can’t change as fast as in Asia. Producing goods for this market is a big opportunity but Vietnam has not caught it yet.

“Young people can compete for this market. The country has a big chance to attract young overseas Vietnamese,” Hoa said.

He said the average age of Vietnamese population is 26 which is the best age for work. That of Japan is 60. Many other Asian countries can’t compete with Vietnam in terms of the average age of their population. “Old people can’t work a dozen of hours a day,” he said.

Returning home and joining FPT group was a big decision in Hoa’s life. FPT currently has over a dozen of thousands of young employees, most of them university graduates in information technology. “I’m glad to join young people and I believe that they are able to change the country. Vietnam’s biggest strength is in its people,” Hoa emphasizes.

Nguyen Nhu Khue, a former expert at a multinational group in Germany and Singapore, returned to Vietnam 15 years ago. “I’m happy to have returned home to do business because in the development of the country, there is my contribution though it is as small as a grain of sand,” Khue said.

Khue now runs the Lotus Chemical Technology company, which operates in the plastic industry. He said that overseas Vietnamese now have more positive view about Vietnam and they don’t want to stand on the sideline during the country’s development.

According to him, it is very difficult for overseas Vietnamese to return and re-integrate into the local community because of the difference in the way of thinking and because they don’t have many friends in Vietnam.

He recommended young overseas Vietnamese who want to return home to establish vast networks of contact.

With a doctorate in Agricultural Sciences Do Ngoc Quynh, Vietnamese German, said: “I’m very happy to return to Vietnam because I can help farmers in my home country”.

As an expert in biogas, who worked at the Can Tho University in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, Quynh has worked in the program to eradicate hunger and reduce poverty for farmers for the last 26 years through promoting the garden-pond-pigsty and biogas model. After working in Germany for 20 years, Quynh and his family returned to Vietnam in 1985. Though he has retired, farmers still call him with a dear nickname – Mr. Quynh Biogas.

“I was born in a farmer family so my only dream is how to help farmers to improve their lives. Therefore I always try to find out what they need, so I can help them,” Quynh said.

Director of Minh Tran company, Dr. Nguyen Tri Dung, a Vietnamese Japanese, strongly believes in the youth of Vietnam. Dung says that each person nurtures their dreams to develop Vietnam. “Any overseas Vietnamese who has projects to develop Vietnam based on modern industry, I would like to join you to realize this dream together,” he said.

PV