Overseas Vietnamese courted by Hanoi to come home as solution to talent gap
Dual citizenship rules changed as Vietnam seeks skilled workers to fuel growth drive
HANOI -- Two years ago, former Google engineer Minh Hoang told his wife he was considering moving back to Vietnam, where both were born, after 10 years living in the U.S. She burst into tears.
The family of five had just moved house, enjoying a good lifestyle afforded by well-paying jobs the couple had in the world's most advanced technology industry, the 40-year-old Hanoi native told Nikkei Asia. His wife, a data engineer at TikTok, was against relocating the family across the Pacific Ocean.
Minh's dream of returning to Vietnam after a total of 21 years living abroad, including a stint in Germany, didn't die. In January this year, an opening for a role in data and artificial intelligence in Vietnam came up and Minh knew immediately he wanted the job. This time, his wife said yes: Her aging parents were getting weaker, Minh said, and she was more confident their children, now two years older, could adapt to the change.
Within three months, Minh was back in Vietnam, now joined by the rest of the family.
"It's uncomfortably exciting," Minh said. "I had everything in the U.S., a good job, a nice house, a nice life. But working here means I can contribute to the country where I was born," said Minh, sitting on a blue stool on a busy Hanoi sidewalk slurping bun rieu -- a local noodle soup delicacy, his eyes beaming with energy and excitement.
Minh is now chief data officer at brokerage firm Techcom Securities in the capital. He's an example of the many skilled Vietnamese workers living overseas that the Communist-run country of 100 million is encouraging to come home, hoping to offset lower pay scales with a much lower cost of living. Under Communist Party leader To Lam, Vietnam wants to move up the talent supply chain amid booming economic growth, the biggest nationwide economic reforms in nearly four decades squarely targeting a boost to the private sector and new rules permitting dual citizenship.
The government hasn't published a target for how many people it wants to come back, nor any data on how many have already done so. It's unclear how many would be willing to trade comfortable lifestyles in developed nations for the trappings of a developing nation under the control of a communist party. It's also unknown how many may have tried the experiment of coming back only to find things not to their liking and move away again.
But Vietnam-watchers say it's clear the country needs highly qualified professionals with exposure to advanced economies like Minh to lead and create breakthroughs in science and technology including the semiconductor and AI sectors, among key target sectors for the country, to achieve its ambitious growth projections.
"Vietnam's export-led, labor-intensive model is at a critical juncture," according to Ingrid Christensen, the International Labour Organization's country director for Vietnam. "To sustain high economic growth at a time of economic transformation and global trade uncertainties, sustainable investments coupled with effective implementation of inclusive socioeconomic reforms are essential for Vietnam's aspiration to become a high-income developed country by 2045."
"In the context of an ageing society and rapidly growing economy, expanding the workforce both through domestic reforms ... as well as fair and safe migration to Vietnam can be suitable approaches," Christensen told Nikkei Asia.
"As Vietnam intensifies efforts to strengthen its presence in high-growth, strategic sectors such as the semiconductor industry, it may need to increase efforts to attract high-skilled workers -- particularly those with substantial experience and specialized expertise, such as chip design engineers -- to complement and enhance the capabilities of the domestic workforce."
There are an estimated 6 million of what the government calls "overseas Vietnamese" -- including both citizens of the country and those of Vietnamese origin -- known as Viet kieu, living in 130 countries and territories, according to the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese. As of October 2024, some 80% reside in developed countries, and 10% are highly qualified professionals, data provided by the committee showed.
Last month Vietnam relaxed its immigration laws to attract more talent from overseas, including removing certain requirements for people seeking Vietnamese nationality without relinquishing their foreign citizenship. Top officials have promised more breakthrough incentives ahead, including on salary, accommodation or job roles.
"There are many young and smart people on my team," said newly returned tech executive Minh. "Some are especially good at math, an essential skill for AI. One day I received a note at 2 a.m. on a problem we were solving at work, and I responded at 2:12 a.m. as I happened to be working on it as well."
But as Vietnam aims to propel already robust economic growth higher -- 8% last quarter -- it is facing a talent bottleneck. Only 29% of the country's working class has gone through training or received qualifications, according to Vietnam's National Statistics Office, much lower than Japan's 56% or Canada's 63%.
People like Anh Kim Pham, an American citizen with Vietnamese ethnicity, are seen as key talent acquisitions. After working for Accenture and Bank of America, she moved to Hanoi three years ago as the lead of database at Vietnamese lender VPBank.
Over a recent lunch with Nikkei Asia, Pham's cheerful demeanor belies a tough start in life: She was born in a refugee camp in Malaysia following the Vietnam War, before growing up in the cowboy culture of Texas.
"I like data and I like to fix problems," said Pham, 36. "Here I get to be seen, have my opinions heard and I get to work directly to upskill my team. Whereas in the U.S., you are mostly an individual contributor, a small individual in a workforce of 100,000-plus."
However, Pham highlighted challenges adapting to the different working culture and power structure within the Vietnamese corporate world: "There is a lack of sharing in expertise here and the corporate governance is very top-down."
Living as a foreigner in Vietnam also comes with certain restrictions. If Pham can attain the dual nationality per the new law, she will no longer need a work visa, and will likely have full access to property ownership and banking services that are currently only available to citizens.
In a similar position is U.S. citizen An Luong, a Stanford University and MIT alum who used to work at Microsoft and Walmart Labs in the U.S. He arrived in Vietnam from New York in 2021 after he was headhunted to join Vietnamese tech services firm One Mount Group. Luong, 31, has since moved to local conglomerate Masan Group as its head of AI and data science.
"The mission was the most important thing," Luong told Nikkei Asia. He finds it ironic that everyone in his family was born in Vietnam except him, yet he's the only one in Vietnam whereas the rest of the family is in the U.S.
"One Mount wants to build Vietnam's biggest digital ecosystem and platform, across consumer, business, as well as real estate, and ... finance. That mission for me was something I felt like I could give (to)," he said. "I could use my skills to help a place that matters to me, a place that I felt personally connected with.
"My brother around 15 years ago considered moving to Vietnam as well with a similar goal as me. But there just weren't enough opportunities at the time. He would have not been getting one-tenth of what he was paid in the U.S. back then. It's a much harder pill to swallow," said Luong.
For all the recent positive policy developments, structural obstacles persist, hindering Vietnam's ability to fully attract and retain foreign talent, according to Jack Nguyen, chief executive officer of InCorp Vietnam, a consultancy that handles market entries and corporate services for foreign firms in Vietnam.
"Administrative enforcement remains inconsistent, with different provinces interpreting and applying national regulations in varying ways, leading to delays or rejections of work permit applications, even when all required documentation is submitted," Nguyen told Nikkei Asia. "Another challenge is the lack of family support policies, as Vietnam does not yet have a coherent legal framework for dependent visas or employment rights for accompanying spouses, making long-term settlement less appealing."
Still, while discrepancies between statutory law and administrative practice still persist, "the overall trajectory is clearly moving in a positive direction," according to Nguyen. "The government is no longer content with improvements 'on paper' but is actively pursuing operational reforms -- particularly through digitization, procedural transparency, and institutional strengthening at the grassroots level."
While government policies are slowly being rolled out, the private sector has been driving the talent inflow.
Techcombank, one of the top private lenders in Vietnam, in 2022 launched its first Overseas Talent Roadshow to recruit Vietnamese working overseas, specifically in tech, data and finance sectors.
"The first time, we went to Singapore, and there were around 200-300 people attending. And right now, in Europe there are around 300-350 people who have shown interest," said Techcombank Chief Executive Officer Jens Lottner.
A German national, Lottner is one of a few non-local leaders of Vietnamese businesses in Hanoi. He joined from Thailand's Siam Commercial Bank five years ago and has spent two-thirds of his career in Asia.
"Vietnam is more exciting now," he said. "The political leadership and the aspiration the government has articulated are very encouraging. So, people are saying: 'Maybe now is the time to come back.'"
Techcombank started with the recruitment of people for more technical roles, like risk assessment or financial analysis, and people with 10-15 years of working experience, having grown up in Vietnam before studying and working overseas. Those people often have strong ties to the country and may now want to return to Vietnam to be with their aging parents or introduce their culture to their children, Lottner said.
"For the next level of growth in Vietnam, a lot of this is about developing infrastructure, such as railways, solar power, and green cities," Lottner told Nikkei Asia.
"We want to attract a lot of expertise in markets like infrastructure and project finance or investment banking specialists who can help us to finance these big projects," he added. "We are looking for these kinds of profiles."
However, a life in Vietnam is not for everyone.
A Vietnamese finance expert who worked at Asian hubs Shanghai and Singapore and is fluent in English and Chinese returned to Vietnam in 2024 but has already left the country this month for Australia.
The person, who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions, told Nikkei Asia she felt robbed by the high personal income tax rate in Vietnam and saw little return from the social welfare and public services.
Despite calling on overseas talent, Vietnam remains skeptical of the idea of opening up too much to foreigners. The country suffered colonial occupation and invasion attempts in the past century and only emerged from active conflict in the late 1980s.
The new citizenship law still requires the Vietnamese president's approval for dual nationality applications. To protect the main body of the Vietnamese workforce, the party leadership has expressed interest in attracting specifically highly skilled professionals in targeted sectors.
"What we will always be looking for is entrepreneurial talent," Techcombank's Lottner said. "That will always be relevant."
Quang Do, 32, a German citizen of Vietnamese descent and former Google account manager, was keen to live in Vietnam but did not dare to jump straight into the pool. He first moved to Singapore and set up his overseas Vietnamese business aimed at connecting the Vietnamese community globally.
"In Singapore you have a portal, you create an account, you submit and in five minutes your company is pending review. And in one or two days your company is opened," Do said.
"If I were to open an entity now in Vietnam, I would go through my wife because she speaks Vietnamese. Often in Vietnam, you will need to print stuff, sign it, stamp it, and then go to register in person. These are just things in Singapore you don't have to do," he said.
Eventually, he made the move in September 2024. Now living in an apartment in Ho Chi Minh City overlooking the Saigon River with his first child on the way, Do said he would have felt a fear of missing out being anywhere else right now.
"I wouldn't want to be in Germany, which I already know so well and where in five years not much is moving. Here, in five weeks, the street looks different," he said. "It's the combination of how much alive one feels here, how much adventure there is and how fun it is."
For Techcom Securities' Minh, four months in Hanoi have already thrown up a challenge -- noise pollution. Minh finds himself lining all his apartment windows trying to create a quiet environment in the bustling capital.
"I was really obsessed about it. I found myself doing it repeatedly but it's not an easy thing to do in Hanoi. There is no perfect option," said Minh, before adding that the downsides are being offset by experiences such as seeing his daughter write in Vietnamese for the first time and being able to sit down to dinner with his father a few times a week.