President Nguyen Minh Triet has called on all individuals and enterprises, from both inside the country and abroad, to lend a helping hand to poor people . . .

President Nguyen Minh Triet has called on all individuals and enterprises, from both inside the country and abroad, to lend a helping hand to poor people in the ancestral province of Phu Tho.

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President Nguyen Minh Triet plants a tree yesterday during the Hung Kings’ Festival in northern Phu Tho Province’s Viet Tri City.

In his speech during a ceremony at the Hung King Festival called ‘Joining Merciful Hands for People in the Ancestral Land’, Triet appealed to the generosity of individuals and organisations to help poor and underprivileged people and families.

“The country has been liberated and reunited for 35 years but many people are still suffering the severe consequences left behind by the wars,” he said at the ceremony, which was held as part of the annual festival in the north-western province of Phu Tho, to encourage people to help the Government and Party significantly reduce the nation’s poverty rate.

“Whether the help was big or small, it would be meaningful because it would show that people support and want to share what they can to help improve the lives of the poor,” said Triet.

The president praised Phu Tho, which is located 85km from Ha Noi, for the efforts it has made to overcome the aftermath of war and for its achievements in building and developing the province.

Phu Tho contributed a lot of people to the war efforts and was a key base during the resistance war. It suffered severe damages from the war’s destruction.

“Many people continue to live in poor conditions. The province itself has been able to help some, but not all. Other provinces, especially neighbouring ones, could provide better assistance to help fight against poverty,” said Triet.

The ‘Joining Merciful Hands for People in the Ancestral Land’ programme is part of the provincial ‘Eradicating Slums, Alleviating Poverty’ pro-gramme. The province has eliminated 12,000 slums and built a large number of social security constructions while reducing the poverty rate to 13 per cent.

Phu Tho aims to alleviate another 7,000 slums and reduce the poverty rate to less than 10 per cent.

Later yesterday, the president witnessed the signing of a co-operation agreement on investing and developing key industrial and service projects in Phu Tho between the provincial People’s Committee and a number of major economic and banking groups.

Triet also attended the launch of a movement at the Hung Temple’s historical monument to encourage business people to plant trees to express their gratitude to the Hung Kings in celebration of the 1000th founding anniversary of Thang Long-Ha Noi.

The Hung King Temple’s festival, which lasts for 3 days from the 9th to the 11th of the 3rd month of the lunar calendar, is held to worship the Hung Kings who were instrumental in the founding of the nation.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News