4th Int’l Conference on VN-NGOs Cooperation underway

Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son at the event

The two-day conference features six seminars focusing on partnerships between Viet Nam and foreign NGOs in several prioritised areas, namely education and training; healthcare; co-operation between foreign businesses and NGOs for sustainable development; the settlement of social issues and war consequences; the environment, climate change response, natural disaster prevention and mitigation, and emergency rescue; along with poverty elimination and socio-economic development.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son spoke highly of foreign NGOs’ assistance for and friendship with the Vietnamese people.

The cooperation has resulted in encouraging achievements, noting aside from contributing to local poverty reduction and sustainable development, foreign NGOs had helped promote relations between Viet Nam and other countries.

He added that the conference aimed to assess the co-operation between Viet Nam and foreign NGOs following their third meeting in 2013 and plan for the future.

Evaluating foreign NGOs’ role in local development, Nguyen Phuong Nga, President of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations, attributed the country’s enormous poverty reduction and socio-economic development attainments partly to the substantial assistance from friends around the world, including foreign NGOs.

In addition, she also expressed her hope that NGOs continue to broaden their support for and co-operation with Viet Nam.

The event aimed to assess the cooperation between Viet Nam and foreign NGOs since the third event took place in 2013 and set up orientations for enhancing their ties in the coming years.

It also aimed to evaluate the relationship between Viet Nam and foreign NGOs for the 2014 to 2019 period, whilst sharing experience as a means of learning lessons to boost the future cooperation process. 

In addition, the event provided an opportunity for the nation to share with foreign NGOs and development partners its priorities and needs for co-operation in the 2020-2025 period.

Participants made up of members from foreign NGOs operating within the country, in addition to representatives from relevant ministries, embassies, foreign businesses, along with bilateral and multilateral development cooperation agencies./. 

By Vien Nhu