Overseas Vietnamese at Tan Son Nhat Airport

VietNamNet Bridge - Like many of their countrymen over the world, Vietnamese nationals living in Belgium have cheered a governmental decision to grant visas exemptions to overseas Vietnamese as from September 1.

The decision was signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on August 17.

“The visa exemption policy lifts the spirits of those living far from the motherland,” said Nguyen Manh Hung, General Secretary of the Hoa Sen (Lotus) Association in Belgium.

He said Vietnamese nationals abroad were delighted to hear President Nguyen Minh Triet’s announcement on the exemption of visas for overseas Vietnamese during his visit to the US in June this year, adding that they are looking forward to the day the policy comes into effect.

For overseas Vietnamese, the visa exemption is a keystone policy under the Political Bureau’s Resolution 36. It demonstrates the Party’s and the State’s concerns towards the overseas Vietnamese community.

Luu Hoang Trong, a Vietnamese resident in Liege, said the move will create more favourable conditions for him and his family to visit the homeland. He said it will save him a lot of time as he will no longer have to go to the Vietnamese Embassy in Brussels to apply for visa.

“Leaders of the Party, the State and Government have fulfilled their promises to overseas Vietnamese, proving a thorough understandings of their needs and sentiments towards the homeland,” said Nguyen Thi Hien, a Vietnamese resident in Namur.

Ha Minh Hao from Liege, who often returns to Vietnam to visit her family, said she was very happy to learn of the visa exemption. “I will become a “shuttle” between Belgium, where I am living now, and my homeland Vietnam thanks to more simple procedures.”

Sharing feelings with other overseas Vietnamese, Nguyen Trung Dung – a scientific collaborator in Liege University, and Hoang Anh Dung – a doctor in Erasme hospital, said they were grateful to the State for their consideration for Vietnamese intellectual communities abroad like them.

Both of them are currently taking part in cooperative projects with their fellow-countrymen in Vietnam and often return to their homeland as part of the projects.

The decision will encourage Vietnamese nationals abroad to use their positions as cultural bridges to boost relations between Vietnam and the countries they reside in during the country’s international integration process, as well as to make further contributions to the national development and construction of the homeland, they said.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Belgium Phan Thuy Thanh told a Vietnam News Agency reporter that the embassy has done its utmost to have everything ready before the visa exemption deadline comes along.

(Source: VNA)