High-ranking delegation of HCMC visits Embassy of Vietnam in Israel

Vietnamese Ambassador to Israel Cao Tran Quoc Hai introduced the situation in the Middle East to Secretary of HCMC Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan.

A delegation of Ho Chi Minh City high ranking officials led by Secretary of HCMC Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan visited Embassy of Vietnam in Israel on May 21.

According to Vietnamese Ambassador to Israel Cao Tran Quoc Hai, the relationship between Vietnam and Israel  has developed continually in all fields. The two sides have agreed to raise bilateral turnover to US$3 billion and will sign five free trade agreements between the two nations in June. Israel expects to open a direct air route connecting the two countries.

The ambassador affirmed that the Embassy of Vietnam in Israel will be a diplomatic bridge between HCMC with Israel.

Politburo member, Secretary of HCMC Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan said that the visit aims to strengthen cooperative relations between HCMC and Israel and is good chance for the city in learning experiences in fields of building smart city, education and training, creative and innovative startup, science and technology, and high-tech agriculture from Israel.

Secretary of HCMC Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan presents a portrait of President Ho Chi Minh made of rice to Vietnamese Ambassador to Israel Cao Tran Quoc Hai.

HCM City leader receives Finnish, Cuban guests

Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Thanh Phong hosts a reception for Finnish Ambassador Kari Kahiluoto.

Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Thanh Phong hosted a reception for Finnish Ambassador Kari Kahiluoto on May 21.

Activities, such as “Ho Chi Minh City Innovation, Startup and Entrepreneurship Week”, “Together with Finland” held recently by the Finland Embassy in Vietnam and HCMC authorities have contributed to the development of cooperative relationships between Finland and Vietnam, said Mr, Nguyen Thanh Phong.

The city’s leader hoped to see more cooperation between HCMC and Finland in fields of building smart city, waste treatment and education development.

On the same day, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong also received Susely Morfa Gonzalez, First Secretary of Cuba's Young Communist League.

CPV leader receives officials of LPRP Organisation Commission

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong (R) receives Chairman of the Organisation Commission of the LPRP Central Committee Chansy Phosikham in Hanoi on May 22 

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong stressed the decisive role of the organisation and personnel work in the success of the  revolution in Vietnam and Laos in the new situations.

He asked the Organisation Commissions of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee and the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee to continue working closely together to boost the exchange of information and experience in Party and political system building, and personnel training.

The leader hosted a reception for a delegation of the Organisation Commission of the LPRP Central Committee in Hanoi on May 22.

Chansy Phosikham, Politburo member and Chairman of the Lao Organisation Commission, congratulated Vietnam on its recent major achievements and expressed his belief that under the CPV’s leadership, the Vietnamese people will continue to obtain greater attainments in reforms and successfully realise the targets set at the 12th National Congress of the CPV.

He also acknowledged the enormous support that Vietnam has given to Laos throughout history.

The official informed the host leader about his country’s situation and the outcomes of the talks between the two parties’ organisation commissions. 

The LPRP Organisation Commission will closely coordinate with its CPV counterpart to effectively implement the agreements reached between the two parties and their commissions, including further sharing information and experience in Party building and personnel training, he noted.

At the reception, General Secretary Trong also congratulated Laos on its important accomplishments, adding that he believes under the LPRP’s leadership, the Lao people will gain more successes and achieve the targets set at the 10th National Congress of the LPRP.

He underlined the significance of the special Vietnam-Laos relationship and thanked Laos’ support for Vietnam so far.

Vietnam will exert every effort to join Laos in enhancing their special ties in all fields, thus contributing to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world, he said.

He spoke highly of the outcomes of the talks and cooperation between the two organisation commissions.

Also on May 22, the Lao delegation, led by Chansy Phosikham, had talks with officials of the CPV Organisation Commission, led by its Chairman Pham Minh Chinh.

The two sides briefed each other about the situation of their respective parties and countries while reviewing bilateral cooperation. They discussed measures to reinforce connections between the commissions and shared experience in Party building, especially in the organisation and personnel work.

On this occasion, on behalf of leaders of the LPRP and the State of Laos, Chansy Phosikham presented the Isala (Freedom) Order to collectives and individuals of the CPV Organisation Commission to honour their contributions to the two countries’ traditional friendship, special solidarity and all-round cooperation.

Party official congratulates VBS on Lord Buddha’s birthday

Chairwoman of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Mass Mobilisation Truong Thi Mai (fourth, left) visits the Executive Council of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha Central Committee at Quan Su Pagoda in Hanoi on May 22 

Chairwoman of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Mass Mobilisation Truong Thi Mai congratulated Buddhists on Lord Buddha’s 2562nd birthday while visiting the Executive Council of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) Central Committee at Quan Su Pagoda in Hanoi on May 22.

On behalf of leaders of the Party, State and Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, Mai, who is also a Politburo member and Secretary of the Party Central Committee, extended congratulations to Most Venerable Thich Thanh Nhieu, vice standing chairman of the council, and all Buddhist monks, nuns and followers on Lord Buddha’s birthday.

She emphasised that the Party and State always appreciate contributions by the VBS and Buddhists monks, nuns and followers who have continually stood side by side with the country in the process of national development and protection.

Mai applauded the VBS’s issuance of an official document demanding the eradication of superstition, votive paper burning at places of worship of Buddhism, and practices that go against the fine traditions and Buddhist culture of Vietnam. 

She considered this move as a contribution to the development of Buddhism as well as the country.

For his part, Most Venerable Thich Thanh Nhieu thanked the Party and State leaders for their support, noting that since the VBS’s 8th national congress in 2017, the VBS Central Committee has strengthened its personnel contingent and complete the working regulations of its executive councils at all levels.

He affirmed that the VBS will continue encouraging Buddhists to take part in patriotic emulation movements so as to help build a prosperous country and a democratic, fair and civilised society.

Also on May 22, officials of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai visited places of worship of Buddhism in Chu Pah district ahead of Lord Buddha’s birthday.

Congratulations to Russia’s re-appointed Foreign Minister

Sergey Lavrov has been re-appointed as Foreign Minister of Russia 

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh on May 22 sent a message of congratulations to Sergey Lavrov on his re-appointment as Foreign Minister of Russia.

Vietnam and Russia officially established diplomatic ties on January 30, 1950. Over the past years, economy and trade have been the highlights in bilateral cooperative relations, with robust growth seen in the oil and gas and energy sectors.

Two-way trade topped 5.3 billion USD in 2017, representing a year-on-year rise of 35 percent. In the first two months of this year, the figure reached 657.7 million USD, up 45.3 percent year on year.

The two countries are working together to raise the bilateral trade value to 10 billion USD by 2020.

Russia has poured more than 1 billion USD in Vietnam, ranking 23rd out of 119 nations and territories investing in the Southeast Asian country.

Meanwhile, Russia is the second biggest recipient of Vietnamese investment, worth nearly 3 billion USD via projects funded by the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), TH True Milk Group and Hanoi-Moscow Trade Centre.-

Quang Ninh moves to improve administrative reforms

Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Doc 

The northern coastal province of Quang Ninh will further its efforts to hasten administrative reform in 2018 towards improving the province’s competitive capacity, said Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Doc.

He made the statement at a conference on May 21 on evaluating the local Public Administrative Reform (PAR Index), Satisfaction Index of Public Administration Services (SIPAS), and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) in 2017.

Doc said Quang Ninh must continue to work to maintain its position among the top performers of those indexes.  

Therefore, he instructed relevant sectors and branches must press ahead with administrative procedure reforms, enhance the efficiency of public administrative centres, cut unnecessary administrative procedures, complete e-government apparatus, and pay due attention to providing training for public servants.

The provincial party secretary also required that localities and agencies in the province should organize conferences to seek solutions to bettering their performance in those three indexes.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Long said that administrative reform aims to provide citizens and enterprises with better services and their satisfaction will be used to assess the efficiency of local authorities.

An action plan with concrete solutions was issued by the provincial People’s Committee right after the conference, in which all localities are required to review and further cut administrative procedures and enhance their accountability to local residents.

The chairman assigned the Department of Information and Communication to provide training on e-government to the locals while the Department of Home Affairs should give recommendations to the provincial People’s Committee on how to address issues arising when carrying out the solutions.

Last year, Quang Ninh for the first time rose to the first place in the PAR Index with 89.54 points, which was 6.72 points higher than its score in 2016. Meanwhile, it was ranked 5th in the SIPAS index among 63 cities and province nationwide and in top two of PAPI, moving up 30 steps compared to the previous year. 

However, Pham Minh Hung, head of the Administrative Reform Department under the Ministry of Home Affairs, pointed out some drawbacks in the local administrative reform, including the lax observance of regulations on regular reports in some localities, the large number of deputy heads in some departments and agencies, the irrational ratio between management and staff in some sections of provincial departments, and limitation in decentralisation of state management between the province and districts.

Hung suggested that administrative reform must go hand in hand with the application of information technology. In addition, special attention should be paid to popularisation work to raise public awareness of administrative reform.

In 2017, the province saw improvement in five out of six components in PAR INDEX, which are residents’ participation in local governance, transparency, corruption control in public sector, public administrative procedures and public service supply. However, despite the improvement, Quang Ninh was still in the lower-ranking group. Its performance in accountability dropped.

Assoc. Prof. Dr Le Van Chien from the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics said that Quang Ninh province should enhance inspection of the making and enforcement of plans on improving public governance and administrative efficiency at communal and district levels, while those holding the top positions should be held responsibility for the outcomes of the work. 

He also recommended that the PAPI should be applied in all organisations at district level from 2018.

Binh Thuan leaders visit Cham Bani people on Ramuwan festival

A representative of provincial leaders (third from right) extends wishes to Cham Bani people 

Leaders of the central province of Binh Thuan visited and extended their best wishes to local ethnic Cham Bani people on the occasion of the community’s traditional Ramuwan festival.

Provincial leaders appreciated the Muslim community’s contributions to the national great unity, while hoping that dignitaries and prestigious people will promote their role in encouraging followers to follow the Party’s policies and the State’s laws and participate in new-style rural area building programmes, and supporting each other in poverty reduction.

Cham Bani dignitaries expressed their gratitude for local authorities to create favourable conditions for Cham people to welcome Ramuwan festival.

They said they hope to receive more assistance from provincial authorities to boost economic development.

Like Kinh people with the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday, the Cham Bani use the Ramuwan festival as an opportunity to visit home and gather together with their families to pay tribute to their ancestors and pray for happiness, bumper crops and peace.

The festival began with a visit to ancestors’ graves, which took place on May 14-15. Cham Bani families go to cemeteries to cleanse and decorate their ancestors’ graves and invite them back home to celebrate Ramuwan.

Others rituals held during the festival are Va Ha festival, ancestor worshipping at home and Ramadan month when many Muslims do not eat or drink even water between sunrise and sunset.

There are also other cultural and sport activities, attracting both local people and tourists on this occasion. In recent years, the Ramuwan festival has drawn a great number of visitors and researchers both at home and abroad to explore the unique culture of the Islamic Cham community in Binh Thuan. 

Binh Thuan is currently home to 41,000 ethnic Cham people, including more than 15,000 Cham Bani. The province has outlined a line-up of preferential policies to support ethnic people. To date, all localities of the province have access to electricity.

HCM City aims to tighten ties with Israel

Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan (centre) at the Vietnamese Embassy in Israel 

Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan is paying a working visit to Israel from May 21-25 to strengthen the city’s cooperation with Israel and learn from the country’s experience in building smart cities.

After arriving in Tel Aviv, Nhan visited the Vietnamese Embassy in Israel where Ambassador Cao Tran Quoc Hai informed him of the main features of the Vietnam-Israel relations.

According to Hai, bilateral ties have been flourishing, with the two sides’ leaders agreeing to raise two-way trade to 3 billion USD from 1 billion USD last year.

He affirmed that the embassy is willing to act as a bridge boosting cooperation and investment between Ho Chi Minh City and other Vietnamese localities with Israel.

He told the guest that Vietnam is intensifying collaboration in science technology and labour with Israel. Many Vietnamese firms such as Vingroup, TH True Milk and Hoang Anh Gia Lai are using Israel’s technologies. 

Nhan said his visit aims to learn from Israel’s experience in applying science technology in agricultural production and supporting start-ups.

President Ho Chi Minh’s 128th birthday marked in India

At the ceremony to introduce the book about President Ho Chi Minh

A meeting was held at the Nehru Memorial Museum in New Delhi, India on May 21 to mark the 128th birth anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh (May 19).

Addressing the event, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs M. J. Akbar said President Ho Chi Minh was a representative of the national liberation struggle in Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, Director of the Nehru Memorial Museum Shakti Sinha stressed that President Ho Chi Minh was a model leader of Vietnam, whose reputation spanned the world.

Vietnamese Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh said President Ho Chi Minh was the greatest leader of Vietnam, who devoted his life for national independence and unification.

He also made many contributions to the world movement of liberation and was a UNESCO-recognised man of culture.

Together with Prime Minister Jawarharlal Nehru, President Ho Chi Minh laid the foundation for the growth of Vietnam-India ties, he said.

The Ambassador also reviewed important milestones in the late leader’s career and the President’s great attention towards India.

From 1924-1931, President Ho Chi Minh wrote many articles on the struggle of Indian people against the colonialism and showed respect for Maharma Gandhi. He also stressed that President Ho Chi Minh’s example reminds younger generations to maintain relations with India.

The diplomat highlighted that the relationship between India and Vietnam is in its best period. The two sides have made efforts to enhance their friendship as well as economic partnership for mutual benefits, contributing to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

At the meeting the Indian Society for Cultural Cooperation and Friendship introduced a book entitled “Ho Chi Minh in the eye of Indian people” by Bijay Kumar Padhihari. The 184-page book is a collection of articles written by leaders, parliamentarians, scholars, writers and people of India on President Ho Chi Minh.

Earlier on May 18 in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha State of India, the India-Vietnam Cooperation Centre held a ceremony celebrating President Ho Chi Minh’s 128th birthday.

On May 22, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations in Kolkata, West Bengal, is scheduled to hold a conference on the ideas of President Ho Chi Minh.

On the late leader’s birthday on May 19, a ceremony was also held in Nepal’s capital city of Kathmandu, drawing leaders of local civil organisations, reporters, youngsters and students.

HCM City official receives international guests

At the meeting with the Finland delegation (Source:http://www.sggp.org.vn/)

Activities held recently by the Finland Embassy in Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City authorities have contributed to promoting the friendship between the two countries, said Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong. 

Phong made the statement during a reception for Finnish Ambassador Kari Kahiluoto on May 21. 

He expressed his hope that cooperation between HCM City and Finland is expanded, especially in fields of Finland’s strength as smart city development, waste treatment and education. 

The same day, the municipal official also met with Susely Morfa Gonzalez, First Secretary of Cuba's Young Communist League.