Vietnam recognizes foreign NGOs’ contribution

The Vietnam Union of Friendship Associations hosted a ceremony to recognize the contribution of foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to the sustainable development of Vietnam this year in Hanoi yesterday evening.

Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan, chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, states at the ceremony (Photo: VGP)

 Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan warmly welcomed representatives from 45 NGOs attending the event and emphasized its significance.

Despite having become a middle income nation, Vietnam has still faced with many difficulties and challenges such as war consequences, natural disasters and climate change, hunger elimination and poverty reduction, he said.

Foreign NGOs’ contributions including experiences and human resources have considerably supported Vietnam to build and implement socioeconomic development strategies.

For the last five years, they have assisted Vietnam with US$300 million a year, a great source to the country.

The 45 organizations honored at the ceremony are outstanding ones in the community of 493 foreign NGOs regularly operating in Vietnam. Of these, 14 have been in the country for more than 30 years.

Mr. Nhan appreciated the sentiment, and sincere and effective cooperation and help of international friends, organizations and especially NGOs to Vietnam.

He believed that the friendship, cooperation and partnership between Vietnam and NGOs will continue to be strengthened; contributing to peace, stability and mutual understanding between Vietnam and other nations in the world as well as boost the country’s socioeconomic development and global integration.

Source: SGGP

Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations to mark 65th anniversary

The Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) will hold a number of activities to mark its 65th anniversary, according to Don Tuan Phong, VUFO Vice Chairman and General Secretary, while speaking in a news conference in Hanoi on October 29.

Among the activities are a forum on peace, unity and friendship as well as a visit to the place where the Congress established Vietnam’s Committee for World Peace Protection – the predecessor of the VUFO – in Dinh Hoa, northern Thai Nguyen province.

The organisation will also hold the 65th anniversary ceremony of its traditional day and cultural exchanges with international friends in Hanoi while honouring non-governmental organisations who have assisted Vietnam in poverty alleviation and social-economic development.

The VUFO chose November 17, 1950, the day President Ho Chi Minh sent a letter to the Congress on the birth of VUFO, as its traditional day.

According to Phong, from few member organisations in its early days, the VUFO has increased the number of its member organisations to 111 today.

Over the past years, with its role as a social-political organisation focusing on people-to-people external relations, the VUFO has showed itself as an active, flexible, innovative and effective agency. It has contributed largely to the country’s reforms, nation-building and defence.

The organisation has helped with the collaboration with foreign non-governmental organisations (NGO).

As a result, the country has established cooperation with nearly 1,000 foreign NGOs of more than 30 countries and territories.

Since 2000, NGOs have disbursed over 3 billion USD for thousands of projects to eliminate hunger and overcome war aftermaths, as well as those on public health, natural disaster prevention, environmental protection and capacity building for Vietnamese organisations at all levels.

Source: VNS