The event welcomed nearly 300 delegates and guests who are leaders of the Party Central Committee's Commission for External Relations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Assembly's Committee for Foreign Affairs, many central departments, ministries, and units, leaders of the Binh Dinh's Party Committees, People's Councils, People's Committees, departments, agencies, and organizations, leaders of the VUFO and its central and provincial member organizations, its departments, units and Standing Committee.

President of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations Nguyen Phuong Nga gave the opening speech of the Conference (Photo: Thu Ha)

In her opening remark, President of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations - Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga expressed her excitement and honor as VUFO's 2023 National Conference on People-to-people Diplomacy was held in the coastal city of Quy Nhon, Binh Dinh, beautiful land that is rich in cultural and historical traditions, "the land of martial arts, the sky of literature," the cradle of the famous Tay Son movements associated with the renowned national hero Quang Trung - Nguyen Hue and many heroes, cultural and revolutionary heroes of the country.

VUFO President Nguyen Phuong Nga said that since the 1st National Conference on People-to-people Diplomacy in Cao Bang (July 2022), the whole system of VUFO has deeply and drastically enforced the Action Program to implement the 13th Congress's Resolution and Directive 12-CT/TW on "Strengthening the Party's leadership, improving the effectiveness of people-to-people diplomacy in the new situation" issued by the Secretariat on January 5, 2022, strives to promote the role of people-to-people diplomacy, one of the three pillars of a comprehensive and modern Vietnamese diplomacy in creating and maintaining a peaceful and stable environment, mobilizing external resources to develop the country, improve the country's good reputation, and enhance the country's international prestige and position, consolidating friendly relations and improving cooperation efficiency with the peoples of other countries.

Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga said the 2023 Conference is a very important event for the VUFO's system in determining the orientation to build and develop VUFO from now to 2030 to continue to well implement the foreign policy of the 13th Party Congress. The results of the Conference will be a good foundation for the development of documents of the 7th Congress in the 2024 - 2029 tenure of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations.

Ho Quoc Dung, Secretary of the Binh Dinh Party Committee delivered a speech at the conference.

Speaking at the Conference, Ho Quoc Dung, Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, and Chairman of the People's Council of Binh Dinh expressed his honor when Binh Dinh was chosen as the venue for the Conference. Binh Dinh is rich in cultural and historical traditions, where Vietnam's national alphabet was conceived and born, where many great cultural figures of the country were nurtured, a land endowed by nature with many scenic spots. In particular, Binh Dinh witnesses the historical farewell of Nguyen Sinh Sac and his son Nguyen Tat Thanh as Uncle Ho leaves the country to find a way to save the nation. Binh Dinh is the first locality in the country to build a Science Urban Area with the International Center for Interdisciplinary Science and Education and the Center for Scientific Discovery and Innovation, which are gradually becoming attractive destinations for domestic and foreign scientists, as the nucleus.

From the beginning of the term, despite many difficulties and challenges, especially the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and negative developments of the global situation, the Party Committee, government, and People of Binh Dinh have united, strived and focused on exploiting existing potentials and advantages, carrying out socio-economic development tasks and achieving positive results. Gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in 2022 increased by 8.57%, and 6.46% in the first 6 months of 2023, ranking 9th out of 14 provinces in the North Central and Central Coast; ranked 2nd out of 5 key provinces in the Central region.

Speaking at the conference, Vu Hai Ha, Member of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee, and Chairman of the Vietnam - Cuba Friendship Association, affirmed that people-to-people diplomacy, one of the three pillars of comprehensive and modern diplomacy, with the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations as the core force, has closely coordinated with agencies, including the National Assembly, promote the synergy of parliamentary diplomacy and people's diplomacy, contributing to the successful implementation of the Party and State's foreign policy. The coordination of the NA's Committee for Foreign Affairs and the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations is carried out on the basis of the "Coordination program of the NA's Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs and the Standing Committee of the Presidium of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations for the 2018 - 2021 period", which is implemented in an increasingly active and coordinative way, improving the efficiency of external activities. In the coming time, the two agencies will continue to study and update new contents, coordinate in implementing new tasks; continue to maintain and strengthen the periodic information exchange mechanism, and coordinate in the development and implementation of external programs and activities, which in the immediate future is successfully organizing the 9th Global Young Parliamentarians Conference of the IPU hosted by the National Assembly of Vietnam from September 14-18, 2023 in Hanoi.

Nguyen Minh Vu, alternate member of the Party Central Committee, Standing Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs highly appreciated the important and meaningful achievements that VUFO has achieved since the beginning of the 13th National Congress. The large number of delegates participating in the Conference demonstrated the attractiveness and importance of people-to-people diplomacy, one of the unique creations that caused the victory of the Vietnamese revolution. Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Vu emphasized that there are few countries in the world where people-to-people diplomacy is implemented methodically, systematically, and continuously and has important contributions to the general foreign policy cause as in Vietnam, affirming that people-to-people diplomacy has become a pillar in Vietnam's overall foreign policy, an indispensable part of shaping Vietnam's foreign identity, and plays a pivotal role in promoting friendship and cooperation with the peoples of other countries. The Standing Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs recommended further strengthening the coordination between specialized foreign affairs agencies, including the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations, to promote synergy on the foreign affairs front, contributing to the successful implementation of the country's diplomacy missions.

The Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations donates 20 houses, 2,000 scholarships with a total value of VND 3.4 billion to Binh Dinh.

Nguyen Thi Hoang Van, Standing Deputy Head of the Central Committee for External Relations, expressed her pleasure to attend and speak at VUFO's 2023 National Conference on People-to-people Diplomacy, acknowledge the efforts of the whole VUFO's system in implementing the assigned tasks such as peace, solidarity, and friendship work, multilateral people-to-people diplomacy, foreign non-governmental work, foreign information, overseas Vietnamese, research, advice, advocacy, struggle to protect national - state interests, construction, system development, and human resource training, coordination with agencies, departments, branches, people's organizations, and public diplomacy in the implementation of the country's external relations and the State's diplomacy.

Over the past time, VUFO has actively carried out many external activities, especially presiding over the organization of more people-to-people diplomacy activities with diverse contents and forms, having political and external significance, effectively contributing to the overall success of foreign affairs in the first half of the 13th National Congress's term. The difficulties and limitations in resources and the inadequacy and lack of synchronization in the current system of documents and regulations on mechanisms, policies, and regimes for VUFO are also issues that the Party and State are interested in, seeking to solve in a comprehensive and synchronous manner. Recently, the Party's documents and resolutions also more clearly define the content and relationship between the pillars of foreign affairs. From now to the end of the 13th National Congress, in the context of rapid and complicated changes in the international and domestic situation, VUFO's external relations affairs should continue to be carried out under the motto "Active, flexible, creative and effective", to further promote the pioneering role in creating and maintaining a peaceful and stable environment, mobilizing external resources for national development, and enhancing Vietnam's potential, position and international reputation in the international arena.

Delegates attending the 2023 National Conference on People-to-people Diplomacy.

At the conference, Phan Anh Son, VUFO's Vice President - General Secretary presented the Report on the Results of the implementation of the Action Program of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations in implementing the 13th National Party Congress's directions on foreign affairs in the 2021-2023 and the focus of work in the coming time.

Over the past time, VUFO has actively and seriously disseminated and thoroughly grasped the directions for foreign affairs of the the13th National Party Congress and related documents, directives, and resolutions; actively participate in high-level external relations activities of the Party and State leaders; proactively renew and improve the effectiveness of bilateral and multilateral people-to-people diplomacy; foreign non-governmental work and mobilize resources for socio-economic development with high efficiency with the average total disbursed aid value of about USD 230 million/year. Besides, external information and overseas Vietnamese work have many innovations and creativity; the quality of research and consultation has received good investment, and gradually improved in a positive trend; the construction and development of the system, training, and improvement of human resources are identified as one of the system's key tasks.

In the coming time, VUFO and its member organizations will focus on successfully completing the following key tasks:

Building a wide network of partners around the world, especially in countries with which Vietnam has a comprehensive strategic partnership, a strategic partnership, and a comprehensive partnership, and countries that are neighboring countries, and traditional friends of Vietnam; and expanding cooperation in various fields. Participating in all important multilateral mechanisms as appropriate; improving the efficiency of cooperation with foreign NGOs; improving the quality of consulting work on the formulation and implementation of guidelines and policies on people-to-people diplomacy. Promoting and expanding external communication and propaganda channels; strengthening coordination with relevant agencies, diversifying forms and contents of advocacy activities, and attracting the participation of overseas Vietnamese in people-to-people diplomacy activities. Completing the organizational system from central to local levels; building and developing staff in the direction of "specialized, dedicated and professional"

Also on this occasion, the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations organized the 7th Presidium Conference of the 6th term, 2019 - 2024 tenure to conduct personnel work.

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