Vietnamese living abroad remitted over 5 billion USD to Ho Chi Minh Citylast year, 4.2 percent higher than in 2013, according to figuresreleased at a meeting held by the city's Committee for OverseasVietnamese on January 21.

Since 1993, total remittances throughofficial channels have amounted to nearly 96.7 billion USD, or anaverage 4.4 billion USD per year and accounting for 6.8 percent of thecity's economy.

Last year overseas Vietnamese hailing from HCMCity took part in many social activities including building houses forthe poor and concrete bridges to replace bamboo bridges in remote areasand grant scholarships worth over 3 billion VND (15,000 USD) to poorstudents.

The committee also coordinated with the overseasVietnamese communities in Laos and Cambodia to organise medicalexaminations and give gifts worth nearly 1 billion VND to some 1,300ethnic Vietnamese and locals living in Laos' Savannakhet province andCambodia's Prey Veng province.

According to the committee, HCMCity welcomed 756,974 overseas Vietnamese in 2014 and nearly 1,000 ofthem visited the office of the HCM City Committee to learn about newpolicies and laws on investment, business, labour, residency, land andhouse management, nationality, and inheritance.

Speaking at themeeting, Vice Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Le Thanh Liemhailed the contributions made by the Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese)community to HCM City.

He urged the committee and relevantagencies to help overseas Vietnamese facing difficulties and providesupport and guidance to businesses established by the community.

Atthe meeting, the People's Committee awarded certificates of merit tofour organisations and two members while the committee awarded its owncertificates of merits to 10 organisations and 35 members for theircontributions to the activities of the community abroad in 2014.-VNA