Remittances to Vietnam are expected to hit a record US$18.1 billion in 2021, according to the World Bank and Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD).
As a result, the country will be the world's eighth-largest remittance recipient and the Asia-Pacific region's third-largest this year.
In 2020, Vietnamese living abroad will send $17.2 billion home.
Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest remittance recipient, is expected to receive $6.5-6.6 billion in remittances this year, up from $6.1 billion in 2020.
According to Nguyen Minh Tam, deputy general director of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank), the main sources of Vietnam's remittances, the United States, Australia, and Canada, their sums increased by 10 to 20% compared to previous years.
Vu Thanh Trung, deputy general director of DongA Money Transfer Co. Ltd., attributed the rise to overseas Vietnamese transferring more money to support their relatives in Vietnam during the implementation of strict COVID-19 social distancing measures.
The remittances were mostly spent on investment, production, and business, according to Tam.
According to estimates from the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief released recently, remittances to low- and middle-income countries are expected to grow a strong 7.3 percent to reach $589 billion in 2021.
This recovery is stronger than previously estimated, and it follows the resilience of flows in 2020, when remittances fell only 1.7 percent despite a severe global recession caused by COVID-19.