Grand meeting marks former Party leader's centennial birthday

The 100th birthday anniversary of late Party General Secretary Nguyen Van Cu (July 9, 1912) was celebrated in the northern province of Bac Ninh on July 8.

Present at the meeting were Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, President Truong Tan Sang, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung, and President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Huynh Dam.

Addressing the event, Secretary Trong said that Nguyen Van Cu, who was Party General Secretary from 1938 to 1941, was a talented young leader in the Vietnamese revolution, one of President Ho Chi Minh's outstanding students, and an eminent man of the nation, as well as a resilient revolutionary soldier and exemplary communist who devoted his life to the struggle for national independence, freedom and the people’s happiness.

Mr Trong praised Cu’s great contributions to the revolutionary cause of the Party and the people, saying that he was a creative, ideological thinker who skillfully solved many practical and theoretical issues commensurate with Vietnam’s situation.

Earlier, the Party, State, Government and National Assembly leaders offered incense and inaugurated Nguyen Van Cu's memorial house in his homeland in Phu Khe commune, Tu Son district.

Party delegation attends Sao Paulo forum

A delegation from the Communist Party of Vietnam attended the 18th Sao Paulo Forum in Caracas, Venezuela from July 6 to 7 with the participation of 800 delegates from 50 countries.

While in Venezuela, the delegation, led by Deputy Head of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Commission for External Relations Tran Dac Loi, contributed to discussions at the forum and attended the 201st anniversary of Venezuela’s Independence Day. He also held a working session with Venezuelan Foreign Ministry and met with representatives of political parties from Venezuela and other countries participating in the forum.

The event forum marked a new development in the expansion and enhancement of solidarity among left-wing parties in Latin America.

The forum included the first meeting of Latin American left-wing parliamentarians to put forth solutions for the global capitalism crisis. There were also 14 seminars on independence, national sovereignty, peace and non-colonialism, defence, and information democracy and communications, as well as the environment and climate change, trade unions and social organisations, food security and anti-drug trafficking.

Conference honours people who served the nation

A conference to mark the 65th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day was held in Danang city on July 7 in the presence of State President Truong Tan Sang and National Assembly (NA) Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

In his speech at the conference, President Sang expressed his deep gratitude for the great contributions by people who served the revolution and the course of national construction and defence.

"Paying Debts of Gratitude” movements have become a fine national tradition and preferential treatment for people credited with revolutionary service has been institutionalized in Party and State guidelines and policies.

However, despite the policies on caring for heroic martyrs, a proportion of the families of social beneficiaries still faces many difficulties, therefore, President Sang called on Party committees, local authorities and social organizations to join hands to help improve their living standards.

There are currently more than 8.8 million people in Vietnam who are social beneficiaries (10 percent of the national population) including more than 1.1 million martyrs, more than 3,000 heroic mothers and hundreds of thousands of war invalids.

State subsidies for these people, such as providing health care, houses, vocational training, jobs and preferential loans, have been put in place and “Paying Debts of Gratitude” movements have developed across the country.

Since 2007, “Paying Debts of Gratitude” funds nationwide have mobilized more than VND 1,200 billion to help build houses for families of social beneficiaries that suffered from natural disasters.

The same day, President Sang and central and local leaders laid wreaths and offered incense at the Heroic War Martyrs Memorial in Danang.

Mexico appreciates VN-Latin America forum

Mexico ’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRES) has highly valued Vietnam ’s hosting of the first-ever Vietnam-Latin America Trade and Investment Forum on July 5-6.

The SRES’s July 6 press release said the fact that Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung himself opened the forum reflects Vietnam ’s willingness to become an important economic partner of Latin American countries and serve as a bridge between East Asia and Latin America .

The press release highlighted the continuous growth in two-way trade between Vietnam and Latin American countries in recent years.

Vietnam has become Mexico ’s important partner in Asia after their two-way trade increased from 37 million USD to over 1 billion USD over the past decade.

The Mexican news agency Notimex also gave extensive coverage of the Vietnam-Latin America forum, which drew the participation of representatives from 15 Latin American countries.

It said the forum, themed ‘Vietnam-Latin America: Trade and investment partnership for development,’ opened up many opportunities and prospects for cooperation between the two sides, so their traditional relationship can be developed to a comprehensive partnership for peaceful development.

Vietnam, Laos join hands to build peaceful border

The 22 nd meeting of the Vietnamese and Lao border delegations took place in the Lao capital city of Vientiane on July 6.

The Vietnamese delegation was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Ho Xuan Son, and the Lao delegation was headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Bounkeut Sangsomsak.

The two sides agreed that they have coordinated well in the implementation of the Vietnam-Laos agreement on national border regulations, the minutes of the previous meeting and other relevant agreements.

The border situation was stable with social security and order maintained, facilitating local socio-economic development and consolidating the traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, they said.

However, they underlined the need for closer coordination between the two countries’ ministries, branches and localities in settling existing issues in border management.

The meeting reached consensus on the orientation for future cooperation, especially in cross-border travel management, to boost border trade development.

The two countries have completed the draft of an agreement between the Vietnamese and Laos Governments to deal with issues regarding free migration and unregistered marriages to be submitted to the two Governments for approval.

They committed to speeding up the implementation of a project to increase and upgrade border markers with works to be completed by 2014.

On this occasion, the Vietnamese delegation was received by Lao Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith.

At the meeting, the Lao Deputy PM praised the two sides’ coordination in border management as well as the implementation of the border marker project.

He thanked the Vietnamese Government and people for their support for Laos in the cause of economic development and in organising international meetings, helping to raise Laos ’ position in the world arena.

VNN/VOV/VNS/VNA