GOVERNMENT IN BRIEF 30/6

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, food, 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