The Overseas Vietnamese (OV) community is an inseparable part of the Vietnamese nation, adding worldy color and insight to Vietnam. Soon, the Government will focus on implementing resouces and benefits for the OV community. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chairman of the State Committee on Overseas Vietnamese (SCOV) Pham Quang Hieu gave an interview with Vietnam Times about this content.

- Deputy Minister, could you please tell us what message does the Conclusion No.12-KL/TW dated 12/08/2021 "on the OV affairs in the new situation" issued by the Politburo convey to our overseas compatriots?

On August 12, 2021, the Politburo issued the Conclusion No. 12-KL/TW (also referred to as Conclusion 12) on OVs affairs in a post-Covid world. It can be said that this is one of the important imprints for the work on foreign human resource. The messages conveyed by the Conclusion 12 received an enthusiastic response from a large number of our compatriots at home and abroad.

Firstly, the Conclusion 12 shows the respect and appreciation of our Party and State for the positive changes and the role of our overseas compatriots in the cause of national construction and development.

The OV community is increasing in number and expanding in area. Up to now, the OV community has had about 5.3 million people living and working in 130 countries and territories. The role, position, and prestige of the OV community in foreign countries is gradually becoming more prominent. The majority of OV people have already had legal status, stabilized their lives, and integrated deeply into the local societies. A new generation of young and talented Vietnamese-born intellectuals is being formed and developed, focusing on many key fields such as informatics, telecommunications, electronics, new materials, machine building, and biology.

OV associations continue consolidating and developing, contributing to strengthening solidarity in the community, sharing cultural identity and national traditions with non-Vietnamese. Many religious establishments of OVs have been done over the years and regularly maintain cultural and spiritual activities. OVs' movement to teach and learn Vietnamese is growing strongly, and some local governments have allowed Vietnamese to be taught as a foreign language at many levels of education.

The OV community still is patriotic about the homeland and play an important political role. They have become one of the foremost resources contributing to the process of building, protecting, developing and international integration of the country as well as maintaining and consolidating the friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries. More and more overseas scientists, entrepreneurs, and artists have returned to the country for living, working, investing, doing business or joining cultural and artistic activities, and actively participate in petitions on many State's major policies.

Besides the advantages gained, the community is currently facing a number of difficulties and challenges. A part of OVs in some areas have issues with an unstable legal status. Traditional associations have difficulty maintaining and expanding their activities, building and developing the next generation of youth. Therefore, the maintenance and preservation of traditional national cultural values, including the Vietnamese language, faces many challenges. This requires new tasks for OV community support work in the next phase.

Secondly, the Conclusion 12 affirms the Party and State's consistent view on OV affairs, always considering "the OVs is an inseparable part and an important resource of the Vietnamese national community". The mission serving and supporting OVs" is the responsibility of the entire political system and the whole people", "fully expressing the tradition of great national unity". This is a thorough and principled point of view expressed in the Resolution 36-NQ/TW, Directive 45-CT/TW of the Politburo and other guiding documents remain their full valid. In the context of complicated developments in the world and region, when our country is facing both opportunities and challenges and entering a new development period, it is necessary for the OV affairs to be implemented more comprehensively and strongly to let our overseas compatriots really stick with their homeland, promoting their role as an important resource in the cause of national construction and development.

Thirdly, the Conclusion 12 shows the determination of the Party, State and the entire political system, including our compatriots at home and abroad, in promoting and implementing more effective and substantive OV affairs in the new situation. The Conclusion 12 concretizes the guiding spirit of "more comprehensive and stronger implementation of overseas Vietnamese affairs" stated in the Document of the 13th National Party Congress.

On the basis of summarizing the experience of mission implementation in the past time, the Conclusion 12 has proposed many groups of tasks and comprehensive solutions, including strengthening great national unity, promoting OVs' resources, taking care and supporting compatriots with a solid legal status, their stable lives in the host country, as well as improving the efficiency of national cultural identity, preservation and the Vietnamese language. The information and communication affairs served for OVs and the organization of the apparatus and coordination mechanism with them have to be done well. The above groups of tasks and solutions show the determination to make great strides on OV affairs.

- The 13th National Party Congress has set out the direction, tasks and vision for the country's development towards 2045 to actualize the aspiration of building a strong, prosperous country and happy people. How do you evaluate the resources, meaning and prospects of our overseas compatriots in accompanying the country to build that prosperity and happiness?

In the national history, patriotism and great people's solidarity have always been a great power to help Vietnam overcome difficulties and challenges to rise to such today position and status. The Conclusion No. 12-KL/TW dated 12/8/2021 issued by the Politburo on OV affairs in the new situation affirmed that "no matter where we are, our compatriots always head towards the Fatherland and stick with ethnic roots is an integral part of the Vietnamese ethnic community; is an important resource contributing to the cause of national construction, development and defense".

During the resistance war, many OV intellectuals such as Tran Dai Nghia, Pham Huy Thong, Vo Quy Huan, Tran Huu Tuoc, Vo Dinh Quynh, Dang Van Ngu and others, volunteered to return home to contribute their efforts and wisdom in the struggle to national independence and reunification. The spirit of the Vietnamese people towards their homeland, wherever they are, has always been continued and promoted to this day, clearly reflected in the difficult times faced by the country. The Covid-19 pandemic seriously threatens people's health, life and socio-economic development around the world, including Vietnam. Although people are still in many difficulties, they always donate and support both human resources and material to join hands with the homeland's compatriots to fight the pandemic.

In the process of developing the country, science and technology are considered as the most important driving force. Human resource development, especially the high-quality, is one of the three strategic breakthroughs. Meanwhile, 80% of our compatriots abroad are living in developed countries. About 500,000 people are intellectuals, experts and gain university degrees or higher levels. In recent years, the number of experts and intellectuals participating in science and technology activities in Vietnam has remained at about 300-500 turns of people per year and continues contributing much to science and technology as well as the development of Vietnam in general, including new issues such as innovative start-up, industrial revolution 4.0... Many OV experts are collaborating with ministries, branches and localities.

Many OV intellectuals have transferred new technologies, shared experiences and recommended policies to deal with Covid-19 pandemic such as Dr. Ho Nhan - American expatriate, Mr. Tran Ngoc Phuc - Japanese expatriate, Dr. Peter Nguyen - American expatriate, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quoc Sy - Russian expatriate, among others. Many overseas experts and doctors want to return to the home country to directly participate in the fight against the pandemic or register for remote consultations for people through online platforms such as "Help me (Giúp tôi)", many expatriates are members of the Technology Center for Covid-19 Prevention and Control.

Another very valuable thing is that the young intellectuals in the age group of 25-40, who are the 2nd, 3rd generation of OVs, or international students, even though they still have to focus on taking care of their lives and developing themselves, they still devote much themselves to the country's development, promoting the formation of affiliate networks of experts and intellectuals such as AVSE Global, Vietnam Initiative, VietChallenge, Vietnamese Journey, and Vietnam Young Academy. In addition, Vietnamese workers working abroad, accessing advanced working processes and modern technology when returning home will also become qualified human resources.

Our overseas compatriots are also contribute important resources to economic development. According to statistics of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, by the end of October 2020, OV businesses have invested in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 360 projects with a total registered capital of about US$ 1,6 billion, not including the small amount of investment capital of overseas businesses in the form of domestic investment (since the 2014 Investment Law was promulgated). Besides, the annual amount of remittances our compatriots send home is a great resource, contributing to stabilizing the balance of payments and promoting the country's economic growth. From 1993 to 2020, the amount of remittances sent home has always grown, reaching US$175 billion, nearly equal to the total amount of FDI disbursed from 1991 up to now. Many overseas Vietnamese entrepreneurs with their stores, supermarkets and business networks are also contributing to consumption, distribution and promotion of Vietnamese products worldwide.

In short, in the complicated development context of the world's political, security and economic situation causing many difficulties and challenges; our OVs, with the spirit of patriotism, always heading towards the homeland and with their great potential in terms of intellectual and financial resources, will accompany the nation, be an important resource contributing to actualizing the national goal by the year 2030 to become a modern-industry-based, high middle income developing country, , by 2045 to have becomed a high income developed country, continuing to improve the country's international position and prestige.

- In order to achieve the expected depth and effectiveness, what major directions will the OV affairs be deployed in the coming time? What points do we need to change to make a real breakthrough to achieve the set goal?

In the coming time, in order to meet the country's development requirements as well as our overseas compatriots support, the OV affairs should be carried out following to the groups of tasks and key solutions proposed by the Conclusion 12. In the coming time, the Government will issue a Resolution to issue the Government's Action Program on OV affairs in the 2021-2026 period to implement Conclusion 12, in which specific tasks are assigned to ministries, sectors and localities to focus on implementing the following breakthrough solutions:

Firstly, it is necessary for measures implementation to strengthen the great national unity, including enhancing the mobilization of individuals who have prejudices and lack of information about the domestic situation. This is a solution with long-term effectiveness, contributing to strengthening trust, changing the perception of the community, thereby mobilizing resources to serve the interests of the nation and people.

Secondly, it is also essential for solutions strengthening to promote the Ovs' resources contributing to the country's development, focusing on researching and perfecting appropriate mechanisms and policies to attract overseas professional and senior experts and intellectuals; diversifying activities of OVs' associations such as the establishment of overseas Vietnamese clubs, overseas business associations, and expert associations by majors and fields, etc. This will be a favorable mechanism and framework for OVs to contribute more to the economic and social development of the country.

Thirdly, the OV communities' activities need to be supported for Vietnamese language preservation and the national cultural identity and tradition promotion. In which, strengthening innovation and improving the effectiveness of Vietnamese language teaching and learning methods plays an important role to help OVs absorb, preserve and promote cultural values ​​and national traditions. Specifically, online Vietnamese language teaching and learning activities need promoting and improving the capacity and quality of overseas teachers and volunteers; Vietnamese language teaching and learning textbooks need researching and compiling suitably to the characteristics of the locality as well as each community, which can be digitized for them to use conveniently. The research and selection of Vietnamese Language Honoring Day and meaningful activities both in the country and in areas living a large number of OVs will also create positive changes to promote the Vietnamese language movement in the communities.

Fourthly, the communication and external information directed to the OV communities need to increasingly innovate in terms of content, thinking and methods to promptly update the country's situation and the Party's guidelines and policies. Our state, at the same time serving the cultural information needs of the communities, promotes the OV communities' diverse means of communication, strengthens cooperation with the overseas press to well understand the OVs' thoughts and aspirations. Domestic communications need to continue accompanying and showing respect for the meaningful contributions of OVs in the cause of national construction, development and defense, helping to further spread patriotism and sharing of OV communities with the people in the country.

Fifthly, It should be strengthening the coordinative mechanism between agencies and departments in the OV affairs; building organizational apparatus in the direction of leanness, effectiveness and efficiency; focused on training and fostering human resources working in the field of foreign affairs, especially the departments working directly in host countries to respond promptly, practically and effectively to OVs' legitimate aspirations.

- Thank you so much!