Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand Phan Chi Thanh (L) and Thai Deputy Minister of Labour Surachai Chaitrakulthong during their meeting in Bangkok on March 24. (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam and Thailand promote labour cooperation

Increasing labour cooperation between Vietnam and Thailand was discussed at a meeting between Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand Phan Chi Thanh and Thai Deputy Minister of Labour Surachai Chaitrakulthong in Bangkok on March 24.

Ambassador Thanh suggested that the two sides speed up negotiations towards renewing the signed MoU and agreement on labour, including expanding the fields of cooperation to other occupations, cited VOV.

To this end, he suggested the two sides soon exchange working-level delegations to review and supplement the contents of the signed documents.

The Vietnamese Embassy is ready to support and promote cooperation between the relevant agencies of the two countries’ Labour Ministries, he assured.

Deputy Minister Surachai Chaitrakulthong for his part welcomed Ambassador Thanh’s proposals, saying both sides should take measures to increase the number of Vietnamese workers to Thailand to especially work in the services industry and agriculture in the near future.

He also said the Thai side will facilitate the opening of training courses to sharpen the workers’ occupational skills in the country.

Bot host and guest expressed their elation at the positive development of bilateral cooperation, noting many Thai businesses consider Vietnam an attractive investment destination and they will continue to promote investment in the country.

The Government of Vietnam creates favourable conditions for Thai citizens to come and work legally in Vietnam, Thanh told Chaitrakulthong.

Meanwhile, Chaitrakulthong hailed the potential for labour cooperation between the two countries, saying with a population of approximately 100 million, Vietnam provides abundant human resources the economy itself and for other ASEAN countries, including Thailand.

Vietnamese, French localities look to step up cooperation

A ceremony in celebration of the 50th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties and 10 years of strategic partnership between Vietnam and France was held in Poitiers city on March 24.

Presiding over the ceremony, Mayor of Poitiers Eléonore Moncond'huy spoke highly of the the twinning relationship between the French locality and Vietnam's central city of Hue in particular, as well as the traditional cooperation between the two countries in general.

Participants at the ceremony (Photo: VNA)

She called on partners of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, including Poitiers, to proactively renew existing relationships, and look for new cooperation fields such as energy transformation, digital transformation, and green and sustainable development.

Representing officials of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, Pascal Duforestel highlighted the traditional twinning relationship between Vietnam’s Lao Cai province and Poitou-Charente (the old name of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region before 2016), which has been maintained and developed until now with cooperation projects in agriculture, French language teaching and tourism training.

He pledged that the regional authority will support twinning cooperation projects, and promote exchange and win-win cooperation, according to VNA.

He took the occasion to announce that a delegation of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region will attend the 12th Vietnam-France decentralised cooperation conference in mid-April in Hanoi.

For his part, Vietnamese Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang applauded the cooperation between Vietnamese localities and Poitiers city, Grand Poitiers urban cluster and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, considering it a model of local cooperation between Vietnam and France.

He called on local partners to continue cooperation and promote exchanges with Vietnamese provinces and cities.

During the celebration, the authority of Poitiers city introduced the project "Harmonie" performed by director Tristan Guerlotte and composer Malik in collaboration of Vietnamese singer Dong Lan. This is the result of the collaboration and exchange of music and French language between students of Nguyen Tri Phuong Secondary School in Hue city and Lusignant School of Poitiers.

Within the framework of his working visit to Poitiers, Ambassador Thang had meetings with representatives of agencies, organisations and institutions of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and Poitiers city, during which they discussed cooperation opportunities as well as potential with Vietnam in the fields of environment, energy conversion, healthcare, and aviation; possibilities to promote trade, and enhance cooperation projects in vocational training and exchange of experience and skills.

Previously, on March 23, the embassy's delegation also visited a production facility of Bonilait dairy firm in Poitiers, which has a business relationship with Vietnamese partners.

Attractive incentives on offer at Hanoi Tourism Festival 2023

The Hanoi Tourism Festival 2023 kicked off on March 24 in the capital with travel firms offering a wide range of promotional products aimed at stimulating tourism demand.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Nguyen Manh Quyen, vice chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee, emphasised that the festival has been designed to introduce a number of attractive and popular tourist destinations throughout Hanoi to both local and international visitors.

Photo: VOV

It has also helped to connect the city’s heritages and develop fresh tourism products, thereby attracting domestic and international tourists to the capital, said Quyen.

Visitors will have the chance to experience cultural tours and enjoy a diverse range of art performances during the four-day event, reported VOV.

This year’s festival attracted the participation of 100 travel firms from 14 cities and provinces from across the country coming to showcase their tourism products at 150 booths.

E-commerce accounts for 60% of Vietnamese digital economy

Vietnam’s digital economy saw the gross merchandise value (GMV) reaching US$23 billion last year, with e-commerce making up over 60%.

The 2023 report “Sustainable development of e-commerce – the driving force for the digital economy” said that 2022’s GMV increased 28% over the previous year and is expected to grow 31% at US$49 billion by 2025.

Vietnam’s digital economy will continue to maintain a growth rate of 19% in GMV during the 2025-2030 period.

Around 60 million Vietnamese people have purchased goods through e-commerce platforms, with each person spending an average of US$260-US$285 on online shopping.

Photo: VNN

Roughly 55% of businesses participating in a survey of the Vietnam E-commerce Association believe that information technology infrastructure and e-commerce play a crucial role in their production and business activities.

Many enterprises are investing in automation, cloud technology, artificial intelligence and infrastructure connectivity, cited Saigontimes.

At the digital transformation forum held on March 21, experts said that the development of e-commerce required various factors, including sustainable business development, sustainable infrastructure development, high-quality human resources, and technology application in improving customer’s experience.

However, digital transformation is still facing problems related to the legal framework, human resources, and digital infrastructure.

Hanoi exerts efforts to boost tourism development

The tourism sector of Hanoi has worked hard to step up linkages with other localities nationwide to diversify products and improve the quality of tourism services, toward attracting more holidaymakers to the capital city.

Since the beginning of 2023, Vietnam has seen a significant rise in the number of tourists. Hanoi alone welcomed more than 3 million visitors in January and February, an increase of 2.8% compared to 2022. The figure included 535,000 foreign tourists.

In February, hotel occupancy in Hanoi was about 56.2%, up by 39.5% over the same period in 2022. The total revenue from tourists reached 13.2 trillion VND, 3.6% higher than that last year.

Tours featuring destinations in Hanoi are always connected with other tourist attractions such as Ha Long (Quang Ninh), Sa Pa (Lao Cai), Trang An (Ninh Binh), and Moc Chau (Son La). Such tours are suitable for tourists nationwide, especially international visitors who are here on extended travel time.

In recent years, Hanoi’s tourism sector has organized tourism connection programmes in Quang Binh, Binh Dinh, Ho Chi Minh City, Kon Tum, Dak Lak, Ninh Binh, and Ha Nam and Quang Ninh, northern mountainous and Mekong Delta localities, attracting the participation of many travel agencies, VNA reported.

Hanoi targets 22 million holidaymakers in 2023, including 3 million foreigners. - Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

This year, it focuses on developing package products to stimulate tourism demand through the air transport connection. It has signed tourism development cooperation programmes with localities in the southwest region, the Hong (Red) River Delta, and the northwest region.

According to Dang Huong Giang, Director of the municipal Department of Tourism, in 2023, the city will concentrate on developing regional linkage products, MICE (meeting, incentive, convention, exhibition) tourism, weekend tourism, urban tourism, sea and island tourism, health care tourism and educational tourism.

Hanoi targets 22 million holidaymakers in 2023, including 3 million foreigners, Giang said, adding that the municipal Department of Tourism needs to have a methodical strategy and the cooperation of travel agencies.

The agency will promote the connection among travel businesses, state management units and tourist destinations to introduce tourism locally, she noted.

It will also actively coordinate with tourism associations to implement specific tourism products. Accordingly, the municipal Department of Tourism will direct the Tourism Association to build unique products bearing the capital city’s characteristics.

This year, Vietnam is set to welcome 110 million visitors, including 8 million foreign arrivals. This is a big challenge but also an opportunity for Hanoi tourism to achieve its goals. Foreign tourists coming to the city are mainly from China, the Republic of Korea, Japan and other countries in Southeast Asia.

Hanoi is striving to build itself as a “safe - friendly - quality - attractive" destination.

Accordingly, Hanoi proposes to implement the tasks which can have an immediate impact on the city’s tourism development, as well as long-term policies to promote the local tourism industry's sustainable development.

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