The overseas Vietnamese attending the event, the third of this kind, expressed their wish to further contribute to Vietnam’s development, particularly after the country has become an official WTO member.

Dr Tran Nam Binh, an overseas Vietnamese from Australia, said that sustainable policies should be worked out to awake "the dragon of Vietnam" as well as helping it to fly high. The Vietnamese communities in foreign countries should be properly included in those policies, he said.

Six out of the 17 overseas Vietnamese honoured at the event came from the US, while the rest hailed from Japan, Australia, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, and France.