Vietnam is among 16 markets in the world that receive the biggest amount of overseas remittances, one official has said.

According to Drina Yue, Managing Director and Senior Vice President, Western Union Asia - Pacific, despite the impacts of the global economic downturn, the quantity of overseas remittances transferred by Western Union in Asia – Pacific increased by 11% over the past two quarters.

"In Vietnam, overseas remittances seem to be more stable than other countries in the region. This is because, amid economic difficulty occasions, Vietnamese overseas citizens tend to make a great effort to send money back to their homes,” Drina Yue shared.

Nguyen Thi Nhu Ly, regional director for Indochina of Western Union, said that an important part of remittances to Vietnam tend to come from Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Malaysia.

Currently, over 400,000 Vietnamese citizens are working abroad. Still, many of them choose to use unofficial means of transferring money, Ly said.

Ly added that most of overseas remittances to Vietnam flow into rural areas.

There has also been a change in the nature of transfers. Before, she said, most of the money sent to Vietnam from abroad was in the form of gifts, but these days this money is going into investments, such as home construction and even to charity, Ly noted.

Western Union started operating in Vietnam in 1994. To date, the company has provided services to receive money to Vietnam from 200 countries and territories in the world.

Last year, Western Union conducted 214 million private money transfer transactions all over the world with a total money of USD76 billion.