Vietnam, Lao localities reinforce
cooperation

The central province of Quang Tri
and the Lao neighbouring province
of Salavan have agreed on
wide-ranging cooperation for 2011-2013.

Illustrative image. (Source: VNA)

The agreement was signed on
June 29 during the two-day visit to Quang Tri by a Salavan delegation headed by
Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Bouasy Khiemmani Khansay.

Quang Tri pledged to
allocate nearly US$300,000 for education and training, healthcare, agriculture
and construction projects in the common border areas between the two provinces.

It will continue supporting
Salavan in personnel training and human resource development, and work on
development models in the fields of industry, agriculture, health care and
education.

The two provinces agreed to
create conditions to facilitate investment and business of their enterprises
and individual investors, especially in trade, tourism, services, rubber and
forest plantation, construction of hydroelectric-power plants and animal
husbandry in Salavan.

They also agreed to
continue with cooperation in security and national defence, especially in the
upgrade and thickening of markers on the Vietnam-Laos borderline.
In the 2009-10, Quang Tri doled out VND1.5 billion to help Salavan build schools.

Vietnam-US relationship
promoted

The Union of
Friendship Organisations (HUFO) and Vietnam-US Friendship Association chapters
in Ho Chi Minh City
held a meeting on June 30 to mark the 235^th anniversary of US
Independence Day (July 4).

Medical Doctor Nguyen Thi
Ngoc Phuong, Director of the city’s Vietnam-US Friendship Association chapter
spoke of the growing cooperation between the two countries in various fields
such as economics, defence, security, culture, education, and training, and
healthcare service.

The US is now one of the ten biggest foreign
investors in Vietnam,
she said, citing that two-way trade between the two countries has always
amounted to US$18.324 billion.

In 2010 alone, the HUFO and
the Vietnam-US Friendship Association chapters received many guests from
universities, high schools, non-governmental organizations, and veteran
organizations, as well as religious dignitaries who came to Vietnam to promote cooperation in
the fields of culture, education, economics, society, humanity, and charity.

Le Thanh An, US Consul
General in Ho Chi Minh City, emphasized the important contributions of the HUFO
and Vietnam-US Friendship Association chapters in improving relations between
the two countries.

On the occasion, some US
NGOs donated as much as US$854 million to two projects to help orphans and
disadvantaged children and presented “affection” houses to poor women in Hoc
Mon district.

2011 Vietnam-Cambodia
Trade, Investment Fair

Vietnam-Cambodia
Trade and Investment Fair 2011 opened at the Mondial Centre in Phnom
Penh on June 29 as one of regular activities to promote bilateral
trade and enhance the prestige of Vietnamese products and businesses in Cambodia.

Addressing the opening
ceremony, the Secretary of State at the Cambodia Ministry of Commerce, Mao
Thora, said the fair provides an opportunity for Vietnamese and Cambodian
businesses to share their experience in production and expand their
distribution networks to better serve Cambodian consumers.

The fair displays a wide
variety of goods from textiles, footwear, cooking, and medicine, to electronics,
home appliances, and interior products, which are much sought after by
Cambodians for both design and quality features.

The fair will last through
July 3.

Promoting education
cooperation between Vietnam
and Denmark

Prime
Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has received Danish Minister of Education Troels Lund
Poulsen who is on a working visit to Vietnam.

At a reception in Hanoi on June 30, PM Dung
expressed his pleasure at the growing friendship and cooperation, the results
of talks held earlier between the two ministries of education.

The PM expressed hope that
the Danish Government would further provide scholarships for Vietnamese
students to study in the fields of green development, environment protection
and health care, as well as support for vocational training centres in Vietnam.

The Danish Minister of
Education said he was very happy to come back to Vietnam
to help boost cooperation in education and training with Vietnam.

He told PM Dung that he
would submit to the Danish Government some key projects to help develop
vocational training in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and
encourage Danish businesses to cooperate with Vietnamese partners in the field
of education and training.

Diplomats visit Dak Lak

Officials
from the four embassies of Canada,
New Zealand, Switzerland and Norway made a fact-finding tour of
Dak Lak province on June 29.

They wanted to study the
socio-economic situation, human rights, programmes to assist ethnic minority
people and foreign-funded projects.

Y Dham E Nhuon, vice
chairman of the Dak Lak provincial People’s Committee said these countries have
financed five projects worth more than VND18 billion for orphans, disabled
people and natural disasters’ victims, four of which were already completed as
scheduled.

Despite successful
implementation of policies for ethnic minority the province is still running
short of human resources.

During their stay in the
province, the foreign diplomats visited some Canada-funded projects, religious
establishments and families of ethnic minority people recently repatriated from
Cambodia.

VNN/VOV/VNA