Remittances to Vietnam are likely to further increase in 2019 because overseas Vietnamese people believe in the stability of the economy and see better investment opportunities, economist Nguyen Tri Hieu said.

He attributed the increasing trust to the government’s various policies to improve the local business climate by simplifying investment procedures and increasing market confidence.

Remittances have been forecast to reach 17 billion USD this year by some organisations, he said.

The World Bank forecast that about 16.7 billion USD in remittances will flow into Vietnam this year, up 4.6 percent from a year earlier. The BIDV’s Training and Research Institute also made a similar prediction, which will put the Southeast Asian country among the world’s top ten remittance receivers for a third year in a row.

The value rose from 13.8 billion USD in 2017 to 15.9 billion USD in 2018.

This growth is due to the increasing number of Vietnamese people living abroad, particularly guest workers, said Phung Cong Dung, chairman of the Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to the World Bank, Vietnam is among the nine main sources of foreign workers in Japan. Last year, about 68,700 out of the 142,800 Vietnamese guest workers went to Japan, followed by Taiwan (China) at 60,400 people, and the Republic of Korea at 6,500 people.

The monthly incomes of Vietnamese workers in Japan and the RoK averaged 1,000 – 1,200 USD in 2018, while those in Taiwan earned 700 – 800 USD per month, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The State Bank of Vietnam in HCM City predicted that remittances to the southern hub will likely reach 1 billion USD in December to bring the full year’s figure to 5.3 billion USD, up 9 percent year on year.

To attract more remittances, the government should develop trade and investment incentives exclusively for Vietnamese living abroad and increase promotions for investment opportunities in Vietnam via consular offices and overseas Vietnamese committees, Hieu said.

The central bank should also maintain a stable exchange rate, contributing to macro-economic stability, he added.