A corner of Ho Chi Minh city (Photo: tuoitre.vn)
This is also an opportunity for them to admire Saigon-Ho Chi Minh city and feel the changes of this city. Returning to visit the homeland is also to return to contribute to build Ho Chi Minh city to become a civilized, modern and sentimental city, a city worthy of its place in the country and the region.
As an overseas Vietnamese in the US regularly returning to Vietnam to do business, each time returning to the City, Mr. Tony Lam feels it differently. Not only in the heart of the city, but also in the outskirts of the city where many modern buildings have been built beyond his imagination. The newest, the most modern things the world has, Vietnam also has.
The thing that makes Mr. Lam impressed is that Ho Chi Minh city no longer has hungry households, but only has poor households and households near the poverty line, and the city is continuing to implement the program "Reducing household poverty - increasing moderately - good households" to improve people’s living standards.
Especially, the city is aiming to ensure a safe life from meals with clean food for the local people. Taking this opportunity, Mr. Lam and his friends in the US have returned to invest in high-tech agriculture in the city.
"I feel that Ho Chi Minh city and Vietnam are innovating and developing everyday, competing with the outside world. Overseas Vietnamese around the world and people in other countries are also very interested to see the development of Vietnam, to be confident to invest in Vietnam," said Mr. Tony Lam.
Professor Le Van Cuong, an overseas Vietnamese in France, said he had returned to Vietnam in the 1980s and witnessed the difficulties of Ho Chi Minh city at that time. The centralized, bureaucratic and subsidized economy, economic embargo and accumulated difficulties made many people have to leave the country.
Then from the Party and State’s renewal policy, the country opened up. Ho Chi Minh city was the pioneer in innovation by creating a commodity market economy.
In particular, the innovation of the city and the country has changed overseas Vietnamese’s perception of the homeland. More and more overseas Vietnamese come back to Vietnam to live and work, including world-famous professors and doctors.
"I could never have imagined Ho Chi Minh city and Vietnam like they are now. This development shows that the economic opening is a very sound policy," said Professor Cuong.
To develop it into a modern, civilized city, the city’s administration is building a smart urban project. The city wants to apply smart technology to solve specific problems that a big city is facing: overloaded transport infrastructure, flood prevention, traffic jams, waste treatment and environmental pollution. Thus, the city’s administration is calling for all resources, including overseas Vietnamese, to contribute to building the city.
Many overseas Vietnamese highly appreciated the call of the city's leaders in searching for guidelines and solutions to develop the city. Professor Hoang Duong Tung, an overseas Vietnamese in Australia, said that the consensus of Ho Chi Minh city leaders will create success in smart urban construction.
Ho Chi Minh city is a dynamic city with leaders who take pains to listen, dare to think, dare to do and get the people's consent to build and develop the city. Over the past time, many overseas Vietnamese have contributed and offered their suggestions to build the city and the city’s administration have respected these suggestions. This respect has contributed to creating more confidence for overseas Vietnamese when returning to invest in their homeland./.