Le Dung, former spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, has been appointed as the head of Vietnam’s new consulate general in Houston, Texas, USA.

Vietnam will open its second general consulate in Houston city, Texas this year.

Dung has come to Texas with a working group to prepare for the opening of the new consulate general in Houston. Immediately after his arrival in Houston, Dung met with Betty McCutchan, the US State Department’s representative in Houston.

The opening of Vietnam’s consulate general in Texas is considered a new step forwards in the relations between Vietnam and the US. The presence of the new consulate general is expected to boost economic, trade, investment, cultural and educational cooperation between the two countries in general and between Vietnam and Texas in particular.

This will be the second consulate general of Vietnam in the US, after the one in San Francisco, California.

Texas has many Vietnamese-American citizens and the new consulate general will build a new bridge between the community of Vietnamese-American in Texas to the local community in Vietnam and their business activities in their home country. The agency will also facilitate the settlement of issues related to citizenships and legal interests of Vietnamese legal identities in Texas.

Dung said the new consulate general in Texas will be opened at the latest in September 2009.

Last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs assigned Ms. Nguyen Phuong Nga as its new spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, replacing Dung.

PV