Washington — Overseas Vietnamese residents, or the Viet Kieu as they are known in Vietnamese, were an indispensable part of the Vietnamese nation, PM Nguyen Tan Dung, said in the American capital on Monday.

Dung said they played an important role in strengthening friendship with the people of their new homelands.

Speaking at a meeting with Vietnamese residents in the United States at the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington, he said the Vietnamese Government was drafting new policies to encourage them to visit the fatherland for business and to buy homes.

To encourage this move and make it easier for overseas Vietnamse, Dung said the Government was also drafting a policy on dual citizenship for overseas Vietnamese.

After briefly outlining Viet Nam’s achievements in the past 20 years of renovation – and struggles against inflation and temporary economic difficulties – the Prime Minister said he appreciated the contributions of overseas Vietnamese in advancing relations between the US and Viet Nam.

He said the Party and the State considered overseas Vietnamese an indispensable part – and a great strength – of the Vietnamese nation.

And he acknowledged they had played an important role in consolidating and strengthening friendship and co-operation between Viet Nam and other countries where they had settled.

However, the Prime Minister admitted some overseas Vietnamese still bore some resentment to the sentiments and actions of the fatherland. But he believed these people would eventually change their views.

No Vietnamese could feud forever as the whole nation and their fellow men had now closed (doors on) the past and joined hands in building a prosperous and powerful Viet Nam of the future, he said.

On the same afternoon, Dung and his group attended the fourth session of the Viet Nam-US Senior Advisory Council on enhancing Viet Nam’s competitiveness.

Dung praised the Council’s efforts and contributions in developing co-operation between the two countries, in helping crreate the Bilateral Trade Agreement, approving the status of permanent normalised trade relations, and supporting Viet Nam’s admission to the World Trade Organisation.

He spoke highly of Council proposals to assist economic growth and curb inflation – and on infrastructure and financial development.

The Prime Minister acknowledged the Council’s contributions to Viet Nam’s socio-economic development by successfully implementing many investment programmes and projects and introducing new ones.

Busy day in US capital

Vietnamese Prime Minister Dung and his entourage got straight down to business on their arrival in the United States on Monday.

At an early morning meeting with the Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration, Michael Morgan, Dung said that there were abundant opportunities for bilateral co-operation between Viet Nam and the American state – and with the American nation generally.

Morgan said Wisconsin wanted to strengthen co-operation in economy, trade, education, science and technology.

At another meeting, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, one of the key people in the normalisation of relations between the two nations in 1995, said positive developments since then had been very meaningful.

Regarding Viet Nam’s present economic situation, Mrs. Albright praised the Vietnamese Government’s efforts to curb inflation, ensure social security and keep growth on track. She said she was convinced the Vietnamese would quickly overcome the "temporary hard time."

Dung replied that since the establishment of the bilateral trade agreement, two-way trade had sharply increased, reaching more than US $12 billion last year, eight times higher than in 2001.

He said the US now ranked third among 220 countries and territories doing business with Viet Nam.

‘Economic magician’

Also on his first morning in the US, Dung met the former chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve Bank, Alan Greenspan, once described as "the magician of the US economy."

The PM sketched his nation’s economy for the first half of this year, saying that the Vietnamese Government acknowledged it was impossible to put a sudden stop to inflation.

He said it must be done step by step to bend the inflation rate back to a single digit by the end of 2009.

Greenspan responded by saying that Viet Nam, like China and Russia, was in serious need of vital imports to help with domestic production while having to combat soaring prices and inflation.

By cutting down on budget expenditure, tightening credit management and trying to curb inflation, the Vietnamese Government was on track to stabilise the macro economy.

However, Greenspan said Viet Nam should review the operation of state-owned groups and corporations so as not to damage small and medium enterprises.

Greenspan also said Viet Nam would survive present global challenges and would still be an emerging Asia-Pacific economy.

Later in the day, the Vietnamese Prime Minister had working sessions with an adviser to presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama, religious leaders and some top corporations.