Phan Anh Son highly appreciated the Gauteng delegation's visit to Vietnam on the year that the two countries celebrate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations. He said VUFO planned to cooperate with the Embassy of South Africa to organize this anniversary.
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| Vice President, General Secretary of VUFO Phan Anh Son received the delegation from the Legislature of Gauteng, South Africa (Photo: Thu Ha). |
Phan Anh Son introduced VUFO's organizational structure, functions, tasks, and activities. According to him, VUFO is a socio-political organization specializing in people-to-people diplomacy in the field of peace and solidarity, friendship, and people-to-people cooperation. VUFO plays a pivotal role in people-to-people diplomacy and foreign non-governmental work, It performs political and diplomacy duties and is a constituent part of Vietnam's foreign affairs force. VUFO has a large and diverse network of partners, which are governments, friendship organizations, businesses, NGOs, and research institutes all over the world. VUFO currently has 67 member organizations at the central level and 52 local friendship unions.
Phan Anh Son proposed the Gauteng Provincial Legislature cooperate in exchanging information with VUFO. VUFO is willing to introduce Vietnamese partners to the agency and assist in planning their future trips to Vietnam.
Sizakele Malobane - Nikosi informed the VUFO's representatives about Gauteng's situation. Accordingly, Gauteng is a small province in terms of area but contributes more than 30% of South Africa's GDP. It has modern industry and several large cities and is the financial and economic center of South Africa. Gauteng has a high proportion of young people in its population, with about 60% of the population aged 15-34.
However, the province is facing many difficulties such as the income gap, unemployment among young people, and issues relating to race. The Gauteng government has made efforts to improve the living and economic conditions of the people such as improving the quality of education and building free housing for the poor. On this trip, the delegation looked to cooperate with Vietnam in the field of economy and youth training and exchange.
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| The delegates took a group photo (Photo: Thu Ha). |
Members of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature delegation said that South Africa and Vietnam have good traditional relations but the economic and trade relations are not commensurate with their potential. The delegates hoped that the two countries would strengthen economic-trade cooperation, and cultural exchanges, and bring young human resources from each country to learn and support the other.
At the meeting, VUFO and the Gauteng Provincial Legislature agreed to strengthen cooperation and exchange of information in the coming time.
Q.Hoa t.h / Vietnamtimes
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