The Vietnamese delegation at the 24th session of the General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention in Paris on November 22 - 23, 2023 (Photo: VNA)

2023 a successful year of Vietnam’s cultural diplomacy at UNESCO: Ambassador

2023 was a successful year for Vietnam’s multilateral external relations and cultural diplomacy at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), according to former Permanent Representative of Vietnam to UNESCO Ambassador Le Thi Hong Van.

Firstly, the year saw the highest number of mutual visits between Vietnam and UNESCO, contributing to deepening bilateral relations and optimizing the knowledge and resources from the organization for the country’s development.

Secondly, 2023 witnessed historical milestones in Vietnam’s multilateral external relations at UNESCO, demonstrating the international community’s confidence and support for Vietnam’s ability to make contributions to and management capacity at global multilateral institutions, said the former ambassador, underlining that for the first time, Vietnam has undertaken positions in five key management mechanisms of UNESCO at the same time, including three Vice Chair positions.

Thirdly, Vietnam won many titles, and a large number of Vietnam’s heritages were honored at UNESCO during the year. With the recognition of Ha Long Bay-Cat Ba Archipelago World Natural Heritage site, the addition of Da Lat and Hoi An cities to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, and the honoring of the progenitor of Vietnamese traditional medicine, Hai Thuong Lan Ong Le Huu Trac, Vietnam has so far won 65 UNESCO titles. Last year, Vietnam also successfully repatriated the seal “Hoang de chi bao” (Treasure of the Emperor), the imperial seal of the Nguyen Dynasty.

Fourthly, in 2023, Vietnam continued to make important contributions to shaping strategic issues and global policies with the hosting of the first UNESCO international conference on harnessing the values of UNESCO titles for sustainable development in Ninh Binh, cited VNA.

Fifthly, last year also saw the organization of many important events of Vietnam at UNESCO headquarters, contributing to promoting and spreading cultural values as well as the image of the nation and people of Vietnam among international friends. The three nights of Vietnamese Heritage at UNESCO highlighted the rich tradition, diverse culture and the depth of Vietnamese culture, sending out the message of a dynamic country in reform and integration with rich tradition and strong national identity, stated Van.

Regarding measures to promote the values of UNESCO titles and heritage for economic development and vice versa, the former Permanent Representative of Vietnam to UNESCO said that the experience of Vietnam and other countries showed that in order to harmonize preservation and development, it is necessary to enhance public awareness of conserving and promoting values of titles, while improving the State management efficiency over the heritage through completing the legal document system, and designing plans for preserving and promoting the titles along with paying greater attention to the role of communities and people.

At the same time, it is necessary to speed up digital transformation in heritage management and exploitation, diversifying heritage communications and education methods, and strengthening regional, national and international connectivity in protecting and empowering cultural heritage with effective exploitation of economic aspects of the heritage in order to increase their contributions to socio-economic development, stated Van.

In her opinion, at UNESCO, Vietnam should focus on five major tasks - actively proposing ideas and initiatives and optimizing UNESCO's policies in realizing national targets; continuing to make the Vietnam-UNESCO partnership deeper, more substantial, and effective; engaging in the building and submitting dossiers of Vietnamese heritage for UNESCO titles to create more resources and encourage sustainable socio-economic development models in localities; continuing to show strong performance in implementing the country’s positions in five key management mechanisms of UNESCO; and pioneering in popularizing the image of the nation, people and culture of Vietnam to the world, Van underlined.

Two more cold air waves to hit Vietnam in January

Northern Vietnam is expected to brace for two more cold air waves with temperatures not to fall sharply, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

The past few days have seen temperatures not stay too low in the northern region, hovering around 17 and 26 degrees Celsius.

Dr Nguyen Ngoc Huy, an expert on climate change and natural disaster warnings, said that from now until Lunar New Year 2024, there may be two mild cold air waves, with the first likely to hit from January 10 to 12, and the second from January 21 to the end of the month.

Notably, temperatures would not fall sharply, according to VOV.

Photo: VOV

One week before New Year’s Eve, there may be drizzle in the northern and central regions. However, the weather tends to get warmer in the first days of the new year.

Dr. Huy also said the temperatures in January and February 2024 would be 1 - 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than the average during the same period in previous years.

Vietnam, Canada hold huge cooperation potential in agriculture: Canadian insiders

Agriculture has an important role to play in the cooperative ties between Vietnam and Canada, according to Canadian insiders.

Managing Director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute Tyler McCann said that the two countries hold huge potential to enhance agricultural cooperation, which should be given a top priority as it is related not only to the trade ties but also the exchange of expertise and academic experience.

Working with Vietnam will help Canada better access the Indo-Pacific market, he said, elaborating that Vietnam is the regional center for several sectors of agriculture, VNA reported.

Agriculture has an important role to play in the cooperative ties between Vietnam and Canada. (Photo: VNA)

Meanwhile, Director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley Lenore Newman highlighted Canada’s progress in several fields such as genetic technology that helps create an abundant and climate-resilient fauna and flora system, and application of advanced technologies into food production and processing.

Fraser Valley is looking for partners in Vietnam to transfer its technologies, she said, adding the exchange aims at developing a Pacific Rim ecosystem of agricultural technology for all countries in the region.

Over the past years, Vietnam and Canada have paid due regard to agricultural cooperation so as to contribute to global security and ensure a food supply chain.

The Canadian Government has sponsored the projects “Food Safety for Development” and “Smart Coastal Community Adapting to Climate Change” in Vietnam, helping the nation develop safe and sustainable agriculture.

Thanks to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) which came into force in late 2018, trade of agricultural products between the two countries has risen from US$623 million in 2017 to more than US$1 billion at present.

Air tickets nearly sold out for Tet

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has released statistics related to the number of tickets sold by airlines on routes for the lunar New Year Festival (Tet) as of January 4.

According to data, during the January 24 to February 25 period flights from Ho Chi Minh City to other regions such as Hue, Pleiku, Tuy Hoa, Thanh Hoa, Quy Nhon, Chu Lai, Quang Binh, Vinh, and Quang Ninh, have a seat occupancy of 85% to 95%.

Air tickets on the opposite routes from the northern and central regions to Ho Chi Minh City have also nearly been nearly sold out, with a seat occupancy of 79% to 93% for February 13 to February 19, the period after Tet, VOV reported.

Vietnamese carriers expect to operate around 33,800 flights during the Lunar New Year holiday.

Furthermore, air tickets on routes from Hanoi to Vinh before the Lunar New Year holiday reached a booking rate of 99%, while the Pleiku-Hanoi route after Tet had a 110% booking rate.

Meanwhile, other domestic routes linking Ho Chi Minh City - Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City - Hanoi, Hanoi - Da Nang, and Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City recorded an average occupancy rate of 30% to 40% in the period from February 3 to February 15 due to an abundant seat supply from airlines.

Statistics from the CAAV also showed that Vietnamese carriers expect to operate around 33,800 flights during the Lunar New Year holiday with a total of 7.7 million seats, up 14% compared to the same period from last year.

Of the figure, there will be 24,200 domestic flights and 9,600 international flights, up 2% and 60%, respectively, compared to the same period from 2023.

Opportunity for breakthrough in the Vietnamese economy

Forecasts from international organizations indicate the possibility that global economic recovery will remain dim in 2024. In Vietnam, opportunities and challenges are intertwined, so the domestic economy is predicted to still face many challenges.

In that context, the target of GDP growth of 6-6.5% set in 2024 demonstrates the determination of the National Assembly and the Government to continue to restore and boost the sustainable development of the national economy and society.

Many observations suggest that the impact of the world economic decline accumulated since the COVID-19 period is likely to continue to affect the Vietnamese economy in the first half of 2024 before receiving more positive signs. However, the Vietnamese economy will still have a chance to recover better thanks to support policies issued in 2023. The driving forces regarding public investment, consumption, tourism, and exports will continue to be promoted, which will have a strong spillover effect on economic sectors, making an important contribution to the overall growth of the economy.

The settlement of outstanding problems, prolonged shortcomings, and obstacles in the real estate market and corporate bonds is expected to create more positive changes in production and business activities of the business community, cited NDO.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Regarding economic structure, the agricultural, forestry, and fishery sectors are forecast to maintain their growth momentum, acting as an important “pedestal” for the economy. The industrial and construction sectors will still encounter many challenges, but production and business activities are gradually improving, which is the driving force to complete the growth target of 6-6.5% in 2024. The service sector is expected to be a bright spot when some commercial areas can maintain growth momentum thanks to trade policies and promotion of domestic consumption.

According to economic experts, the growth of the Vietnamese economy in 2024 will be based on the main growth drivers, including institutional reform, improvements to the business investment environment, an enhancement to the competitiveness of the economy and businesses, acceleration of disbursement of public investment, and stimulation of domestic aggregate demand to boost consumption and export activities. Notably, Vietnam’s economic prospects are forecast to see many new growth drivers such as science-technology, innovation, digital economy, green economy, and circular economy, especially high-tech industries such as semiconductor chips, AI, electronics, and renewable energy.

Notably, credit rating agency Fitch Ratings recently forecast that Vietnam’s economic growth will reach 6.3% in 2024 and 7% in 2025. Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) also predicted that Vietnam’s economy can maintain a growth rate of 6% and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that Vietnam will rank 20th in the world with a growth rate of 5.8% in 2024.

To successfully implement the 2024 Socio-Economic Development Plan, the Government has proposed key groups of tasks, solutions, and specific actions to bring policies to life. It is anticipated that the economy will face many unpredictable developments from the world’s geopolitical situation, thereby adversely affecting the domestic situation, but 2024 is defined to be a breakthrough time in the 5-year economic period from 2021 to 2025. Therefore, the entire political system must be determined to act with the highest effort, taking advantage of opportunities to accelerate and create breakthroughs.

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