(VNF) – The International Youth Fellowship (IYF) World Camp 2017 opening ceremony was held in Hanoi on Thursday. The free-entrance event was filled with exciting arts performance and in-depth sharing session targeting the youth.

The two-day IYF World Camp is jointly organized by the Cultural Cooperation International Centre (CCIC) under the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO) and IYF, as part of the celebration for the 25^th anniversary of Vietnam – Korea diplomatic ties.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Vietnam's first ambassador to the Republic of Korea (RoK), former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Phu Binh expressed his pleasure to witness and be part of the Vietnam - Korea relations development.

According to him, in the last 25 years, cooperations between two countries have been flourishing in various fields, as perse as economics, politic, culture and especially people-to-people links.

"Bilateral ties are at their best" he noted.

The diplomat also expected that the authorities in Vietnam would create favorable condition to the operation of IYF nationwide, as the organization has been contributing greatly to navigating and nurturing healthy development of the youth worldwide.

As its slogan Challenge - Change - Cohesion goes, IYF World Camp helps connect Vietnamese with overseas young people to reinforce cross-border friendship and mutual understanding.

On its first day, IYF World Camp 2017 brought to its over 1,000 audience, mostly the youngsters, exotic culture and arts live performance, including modern and traditional Korean dance and classical music.

More importanly, the participants in the event had chance to listen to insightful and inspiring sharing from credible speakers of both Korea and Vietnam including Mr. Park Ock Soo - founder of IYF, Prof.Dr.Nguyen Lan Dung.

The talk focuses on encouraging the youth to overcome their own limitations, strive for the better and reach hands to in-need people.

According to Mr. Park, IYF's activities, especially its MIND EDUCATION program has helped many people find their inspiration and courage in life, repel negative feeling of frustration, aimlessness or selfishness.

Many youngster who took part in IYF training or volunteering program have forsaked harmful stuffs such as drug use, gambling, online games addiction.

Remarkably, the event also included a conference that brought together head of local schools, leaders from Ministries, Departments to learn about the new MIND EDUCATION approach and exchange views on nourishing healthy development of the youth.

Mr. Nguyen Phu Binh and Prof. Nguyen Lan Dung receiving letter of appointment as IYF's advisors in Vietnam

The IYF World Camp 2017 in Hanoi also marks a new stage of IYF development in Vietnam, since Mr. Nguyen Phu Binh – first ambassador to Korea and Prof.Dr. Nguyen Lan Dung, Deputy Head of the Science - Environment - Education Counseling Board of Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee have been appointed advisors of IYF Vietnam.

*The IYF World Camp 2017 is still ongoing at the Hanoi Indoor Stadium (My Dinh, Tu Liem, Hanoi) till 16:00 pm Mar 31 with flea market, culture exhibition, lectures and discussions./.

* A flashback to fabulous arts performance in IYF World Camp 2017 on Mar 30 :

The Rio Montana band warmed up the stadium with two hits of the 1980 "You are my sunshine" and "Top of the world"

Exotic Korean traditional fan dance amazed audience.

Other delicate songs including You raise me up and classical opera captivated audience's heart.

( Phi Yen )