HANOI -- Vietnamese lawmakers recently approved changes to the country's nationality law, making it easier for overseas Vietnamese and others to become dual citizens, as the leadership tries to attract skilled workers.
Last week's legal change removes certain requirements for people seeking to gain Vietnamese nationality without relinquishing their foreign citizenship. The rules being scrapped include language proficiency and minimum residency requirements.
The Southeast Asian nation is undergoing its biggest reform in nearly four decades, changing its laws and administrative structure, and easing restrictions on investment, as it seeks to bolster its economic growth. It is aiming for 8% growth in its gross domestic product this year and double-digit growth in the years to come, aiming to become a high-income country by 2045.
Vietnam's leaders see high tech as key to this effort, but the country lacks people with experience working on the frontiers of science and technology.
The change to the nationality law is the first of many steps Vietnam is expected to take to encourage experts to come to the country to live and work. The government believes it can leapfrog its competitors in technology, especially artificial intelligence and semiconductors, by 2030.
"This amendment to the Nationality Law is an important step to 'untie' legal constraints, opening up opportunities to attract valuable resources from the overseas Vietnamese community, including those in the technology and finance areas, to contribute to the country's development in the new era," the government said in an article on its news website in April.
On Monday, the country's top leader, Communist Party General Secretary To Lam, said: "I call on overseas Vietnamese to continue to turn toward their homeland, toward their national roots, to connect, support each other and contribute with the people at home to build a strong Vietnam."
"The fatherland always opens its arms to welcome 'citizens far from the homeland' to join hands in building and developing the country," he said in a nationwide, televised speech.
For decades, Vietnam only allowed a very select group of long-term residents to take Vietnamese citizenship while maintaining their foreign citizenship, such as famous scientists or soccer players. As of March, the president had only allowed 60 people to hold dual citizenship.
Vietnam is leery of a potential national security threat from dual nationals due to its long history of being invaded by foreign nations. In the last century it fought wars with the French, the Japanese, the Americans, the Cambodians and the Chinese. The country only reunified 50 years ago, and it was involved in military conflicts of one kind or another until the 1980s.
Vietnamese families often send their children overseas to study in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Europe. Many of these young people remain abroad and work for big companies such as Google, Meta, IBM and Microsoft, with a large share working in science, technology, and finance. Some eventually emigrate permanently.
There are an estimated 6 million overseas Vietnamese, living in 130 countries and territories. Eighty percent reside in developed countries, data provided by the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese as of October 2024 showed.
In reality, dual nationals can still live in Vietnam but face occasional administrative hassles and limited rights. Foreign nationals living in Vietnam are constrained by visa requirements, limited access to real estate ownership, and restrictions in access to banking rights such as stricter requirements to open a bank account or access home loans or attractive interest rates for savings accounts like locals.
The lawmakers last week also eased regulations on names to make it easier for foreigners to obtain Vietnamese nationality. Vietnam has strict rules on names for its citizens.
Resolution 57, one of the country's pillars of reform, issued in December last year, focuses on the development of science and technology. It states that Vietnam will develop a "special mechanism" to attract overseas Vietnamese and highly qualified foreigners to work and live in Vietnam, including citizenship, allowing home and land ownership, attractive salaries and better work environment in the country.
Civil servants, the military and public security personnel, however, must hold Vietnamese nationality exclusively, with a few exceptions.
Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi.
