VN President to attend UNSC summit, visit Cuba and Chile; PM Dung meets with Vietnamese nationals in Hungary; VN agrees infectious disease project for Mekong region; Relic complex awarded Ho Chi Minh Order

Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet will attend the United Nations Security Council Summit on nuclear disarmament and the general debate of the UN 64th General Assembly in New York from Sept. 23-25.

According to the Foreign Ministry’s Sept.18 announcement, President Triet will visit Cuba and Chile from Sept. 26-Oct. 1.

The visits will be made at the invitations of the Cuban President of State Council and Minister Council, Raul Castro Ruz, and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, respectively.

PM Dung meets with Vietnamese nationals in Hungary

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked Vietnamese nationals in Hungary to unite and assist each other to integrate well into the local community while turning their hearts to the homeland.

He told representatives of the overseas Vietnamese community at a meeting in Budapest on September 19 that the Party and State appreciate their role and contributions to national development.

Every Vietnamese abroad acts as a messenger of friendship, helping to increase economic cooperation between Vietnam and their resident countries and to introduce them to Vietnam’s beautiful land and friendly people, said Mr Dung.

He said his two-day visit to Hungary, which ended on September 19, was successful, and the two countries discussed specific measures to promote traditional friendship and all-round cooperation.

He asked the Vietnamese Embassy and the Vietnamese community in Hungary to make the best of signed agreements to expand bilateral cooperation in economics, trade, investment, education-training, culture and tourism.

He voiced support for the community’s proposal to create Vietnamese language classes and increase cultural exchange between the two countries.

In the afternoon, Mr Dung received leaders of the Hungary-Vietnam Friendship Association and laid a wreath at a monument in honour of Hungarian heroes.

In the evening, he will leave Budapest for Hanoi, concluding his tour of three European nations: Kazakhstan, Denmark and Hungary.

UNESCO Vietnam works hard to earn regional prestige

Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem applauded the Vietnam Federation of UNESCO Associations for its efforts to overcome difficulties to become one of the two strongest UNESCO organizations in Asia.

During a working session with the federation on Sept. 18, Deputy PM Khiem said the organization would continue its important role in assisting the Government in people-to-people relations.

He asked relevant ministries, agencies and Hanoi authorities to lend financial assistance to ensure the federation’s effective operation.

According to the federation’s General Secretary Nguyen Xuan Thang, the organization was set up in 1993 and works as a self-supporting non-governmental organization. The federation now includes nearly 100 UNESCO clubs, centres and provincial associations with more than 5,700 members.

Every year, the federation organizes some 200 events related to culture, science and education. Worthy of note is an international writing contest on the subject of Hanoi, which drew contestants from more than 100 countries worldwide.

In addition, the federation joins in preserving antiques, translating books on culture, sciences and education, sending its art troupes abroad for performances, and organizing training courses for provincial museums.

VN agrees infectious disease project for Mekong region

Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem has approved Vietnam’s participation in the second phase of the Regional Policy and Advisory Technical Assistance project on infectious disease control in the Greater Mekong Sub-region.

The Deputy Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Health to coordinate with relevant agencies to carry out the project with Laos and Cambodia.

Deputy PM Khiem also agreed in principle that the Vocational Training General Department under the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs may access the Asia-Pacific Quality Network as an intermediary.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs is asked to coordinate with the Foreign Ministry and relevant agencies to complete legal procedures to join the Asia-Pacific Quality Network and coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training in activities relating to Vietnam within the scope of that organization.

Meeting marks Vietnam-Japan diplomatic ties

A meeting was held in Hanoi on September 19 to mark the 36th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Japan.

Addressing the function, Nghiem Vu Khai, president of the Vietnam-Japan Friendship Association, highlighted milestones in bilateral ties over the years and affirmed that the ties have constantly developed despite many upheavals in the region and the world.

He said that during a visit to Japan in April 2009, Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh and Japanese leaders agreed to establish a strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia.

“The visit was of great significance, opening up a new chapter in relations between the two countries,” said Mr Khai.

He said that bilateral cooperation has expanded in various areas such as politics, economics, education, science-technology and culture. Even though Japan was affected by the global economic recession, it decided to maintain official development assistance to Vietnam. Both countries are now working on major Japanese-funded projects to build a North-South express railway line, a North-South expressway, and the Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park in Hanoi, as well as traffic projects in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Sakaba Mitsuo, Japanese ambassador to Vietnam, said that the recently signed Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, which will take effect in 10 days’ time, is expected to create an important legal foundation for promoting trade and investment between the two countries.

He expressed his belief that bilateral relations will further develop in the future as the newly-elected Japanese PM is also vice president of the Japan-Vietnam Parliamentary Friendship Alliance.

Relic complex awarded Ho Chi Minh Order

State President Nguyen Minh Triet on September 19 presented the Ho Chi Minh Order to the Ho Chi Minh Relic Complex in recognition of its substantial contributions to the revolutionary cause of the Party and the nation.

The complex, located inside the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, is where President Ho Chi Minh lived and worked for 15 years until he died in September 1969. Over the past 40 years, generations of officials and staff of the complex have made every effort to search, collect and preserve objects relating to the late president.

Since 1969, the complex has received approximately 50 million domestic and foreign visitors who come to study President Ho’s revolutionary life. It has become a popular address for Vietnamese individuals and collectives to carry out activities in response to the Party-launched campaign of “Studying and Following late President Ho Chi Minh’s Moral Examples”.

In August 2008, the Prime Minister signed a decision to categorise it as a special national historic and cultural relic complex.

Addressing the awards ceremony, President Triet stressed that President Ho Chi Minh is the great teacher, leader and cultural activist who steered the Vietnamese revolution to victory. He called on every Vietnamese to draw up their own plans of action to study and follow the late President’s moral examples to successfully build socialism in the country.

Vietnamese, RoK entrepreneurs hold exchange

Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan has said that Vietnam is willing to create favourable conditions for enterprises from the Republic of Korea (RoK) to do business in the country.

She also welcomed the Vietnam and RoK Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s efforts to organize an exchange between businesses from their respective countries in Seoul on September 18.

The event gave enterprises a chance to seek cooperation, trade and investment opportunities as well as to share experiences in corporate operation to overcome difficulties from the global economic crisis, she added.

Earlier, the State Vice President received Chairman of the RoK Chamber of Commerce and Industry Kyung Shik Sohm, praising the chamber’s role in organizing the 2nd Asian Women Entrepreneurs Conference (AWEC).

She underscored that Vietnam is an open market, offering investment and business potential and opportunities for foreign enterprises and investors, including RoK businesses.

The RoK has invested in more than 2,000 projects in Vietnam capitalized at US$16 billion, ranking 4th among foreign investors in the country. It is also Vietnam’s third largest labour export market, with about 54,000 Vietnamese now working in the Northeast Asian nation.

PV