HÀ NỘI — In recent years, the “Come Home Phở Good” campaign launched by Robert Walters in the UK has helped many Vietnamese talents return to Việt Nam from around the world and carve out careers in the country. 

Vi Thanh Tuấn, the head of Supply Chain Planning & Design AP at Schaeffler Vietnam, a global industrial manufacturing company, is one example.

Although Tuấn had lived in Germany for nearly his entire life, he always felt a special connection to Việt Nam as his parents come from this Southeast Asian country. One and a half years ago, Tuấn decided to move to Việt Nam which he always considered as home. 

After years of travelling to Việt Nam during his vacations, he decided it was time to make his dream of living in Việt Nam come true. One of the first steps to fulfilling this dream was finding a good job in the country, and then he found out about the “Come Home Phở Good” campaign online. The campaign has opened doors for many overseas talents to see the country's opportunities for them since its debut in 2016.

Tuấn said Phở - one of his favourite dishes, caught his eye on the internet, and that’s how he found out about the campaign, which helped him come back to Việt Nam, and the people at Robert Walters did a great job in supporting him with that and gave him good advice about the opportunities in the country. Thanks to supports from Robert Walters, Tuấn's dream of coming, living and working in Việt Nam has come true. 

In an interview with Vietcetera Media, Tuấn said Robert Walters offered him an excellent introduction to the job market, good salary ranges in Việt Nam and the network they had established with German enterprises operating in the country.

Through Robert Walters, he was introduced to Schaeffler, who was working on a new project in a green field in the AMATA Industrial Zone. Tuấn found himself interested in this project and decided to take this opportunity and challenge that he was looking for.

In the age of robust economic growth, Việt Nam has seen a rising demand for local talents, Vicky Trương, International Candidate Manager of Robert Walters Vietnam, told Việt Nam News.

"Realising the great demand, the campaign has encouraged Vietnamese professionals who have the skills and fluency in English, access advanced technologies and get used to international working environments to move back home. Despite painting the Vietnamese market in brighter colours to push talents to move back home, we have approached them to learn about their personal lives, interests, and career orientation in the country. Their concerns about the local job market, career opportunities, potential companies in their working areas and their corporate culture, salary range, taxes, the country’s living standards, its education system in the country and many other ones have also been addressed to help them make such important decisions."

A survey conducted by Robert Walters in August 2021 amongst respondents in various areas showed that 87 per cent of over 500 overseas Vietnamese said they were open to relocating back home for a job opportunity.

In terms of their desire to move back to Việt Nam, 14 per cent of surveyed Vietnamese overseas said they were looking to move immediately; 40 per cent said they were considering doing such within the next 1-3 years, while 16 per cent said within the next 4-6 years.

“That gives us the motivation to create the Come Home Phở Good campaign to connect this high quality source of labour to their homeland where the demand is arising thanks to the speedy economic development,” added Vicky Trương.

Interestingly, Vietnamese overseas showcased a strong attachment to families and national cultures. Up to 63 per cent of the respondents said they would move back to Việt Nam for marriage and their ageing parents. Nearly 50 per cent and 41 per cent outlined their emotional connection with Vietnamese culture and their desire to contribute back to the country as their reasons, respectively. Only 28 per cent said they would return for their career-related issues. However, factors such as nature of the company or industry, nature of role, the size of the company, salary, overall package and management style also played a strong role when they consider a job offer.

Currently, about 5.3 million Vietnamese people live and study in more than 130 countries and territories worldwide, with about 80 per cent of them in developed countries. Between 500,000 and 600,000 hold at least a bachelor's degree, mattran.org.vn reported.

Thousands of skilled Vietnamese engineers and developers work for Silicon Valley’s leading corporations, including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. They have made many contributions to science and technology, as well as the economy, politics and culture of their host countries.

According to experts, this is a great source of high-quality human resources for Việt Nam who will make significant contributions to the country’s development as the country is accelerating the modernisation and industrialisation process.

In return, Việt Nam has had policies to tap the potential of Vietnamese people abroad for a long time. Recently the Government ordered agencies to work on a national strategy to attract talents in Việt Nam and overseas with better policies, including wages, access to different sources of information of ministries, departments and localities, and support from the State to organise and participate in forums and conferences. Campaigns such as Come Home Phở Good is such an interesting initiative from the private sector to tap in this rising trend, and would pave the way for thousands of Vietnamese talents to go back home and contribute to the country. — VNS