National United Front's founding anniversary marked
Many activities have been held nationwide on the occasion of the 70th
founding anniversary of the Vietnam National United
Front, now the Vietnam Fatherland Front, (November 18, 1930-November 18, 2000).
The Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee's Presidium has presented
3,000 'For the Cause of National Great Unity '
medals to leaders of the Party, administration, Fatherland Fronts, sectors
and organisations from 61 provinces and cities,
patriotic personalities, intellectuals and religious followers who made
great contributions to the Front's work and to the
national great unity cause over the past 70 years.
A get-together for 150 representatives of people of all strata was held on
November 16 in Hanoi on this occasion. Prominent
among those attending the meeting were Nguyen Phu Trong, Politburo member
and municipal Party Committee Secretary;
Tran Van Tuan, Party Central Committee (PCC) member and chairman of the
Hanoi People's Council; Hoang Van Nghien,
PCC member and chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee and Pham Loi,
president of the Hanoi Fatherland Front.
Many other activities were also organised in localities.
NA discuss socio-economic issues
Vietnam's National Assembly (NA) discussed the implementation of the
socio-economic targets, State budget in 2000,
orientations and tasks for 2001 and the balance of the 1999 State budget in
its plenary session on November 17.
The session was chaired by deputy NA chairman Mai Thuc Lan. Twenty one
deputies of 21 cities and provinces focused
their opinions on following issues:
- Overall assessment on the implementation of socio-economic targets and
State budget in 2000.
- Favourable and difficult aspects in implementing the socio-economic
targets and State budget in 2001.
- Targets and solutions in the fields of industry, agriculture, service,
education and training, science and technology.
- Concrete measures to shift agricultural structure, especially in the
Mekong river delta.
- Investment, import and export mechanism; implementation of the national
programmes on hunger elimination and poverty
reduction and on employment.
- Administrative reforms
- Concrete measures to renew and rearrange State businesses.
The National Assembly continue their plenary session at the Ba Dinh
conference hall on November 18 to discuss the issues.
Vietnam, US presidents speak at banquet
President Tran Duc Luong hailed US President William Jefferson Clinton's
visit to Vietnam as a new milestone in the
process of full normalisation of relations between the two countries.
At the banquet he organised in honour of President Clinton at the
Presidential Palace on November 17 night, President
Luong said:
"It was of great significance that the first ever visit by a US president
to an independent and unified Vietnam is taking place at
a time when the nation is "devoting itself to building and developing the
country in peace."
He recalled that the late President Ho Chi Minh had visited the US in the
first decades of the 20th century, and had expressed
respect for the "American people's time-honoured fighting spirit for
independence, freedom and national unification."
It was not a coincidence that President Ho Chi Minh had quoted the US
Declaration of Independence while proclaiming the
independence of Vietnam on September 2, 1945, he said.
The Vietnamese president also expressed gratitude to "widespread movements
by people of America and the world" calling
for an end to the war, and later, demanding the lifting of sanctions and
promoting normalization of relations.
President Luong remarked that is is "understandable that the two parties
may have differences regarding some specific
positions and policies."
"However, we believe that it is important for us to respect each other not
to interfere in each other's internal affairs and not to
let differences stand in the way of mutually beneficial and equal
co-operation."
He said Vietnam and the US have great potential to be exploited for the
sake of development and co-operation, and that
positive action by both sides was necessary to create a favourable
environment to do this.
President Clinton responded by saying: "We are honoured to join you in
writing a new chapter in the relationship between
the United States and Vietnam, and grateful that this chapter has a happy
beginning."
He said a generation from now people will look back on this time and see
the American veterans who came back to Vietnam
looking for answers about the past and the Vietnamese who enlisted them to
build a common future.
He noted that people will reach the same conclusion as the great Vietnamese
statesman Nguyen Trai of the 15th century when
he said 500 years ago: "After so many years of war only life remains." (VNA)
Vietnam, US sign co-operation pacts
Vietnam and US signed an Agreement on Scientific and Technological
Co-operation and a Memorandum of Understanding
on Labour Co-operation between the Vietnam's Ministry of Labour, War
Invalids and Social Affairs and the US's
Department of Labour in the presence of President Tran Duc Luong and US
President W J Clinton.
The signatories were Vietnamese Minister of Science, Technology and
Environment, Chu Tuan Nha and Minister of Labour,
War Invalids and Social Affairs, Nguyen Thi Hang and the US ambassador to
Vietnam, Douglas Pete Peterson.
Vietnam affirms contributions to APEC
Concerted efforts made by Vietnam and other developing countries of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC)
Forum have helped APEC take a more comprehensive and proper look on the
demand of less developed economies, Deputy
Prime Minister Nguyen Manh Cam told Nhan Dan newspaper in an interview on
the sidelines of the eighth APEC summit in
Brunei.
Vietnam has already completed its amendment to the Individual Action Plan
(IAP) for the year 2000 and its commitment to
IAP has been highly appreciated, said Deputy PM Nguyen Manh Cam, who
attended the summit on behalf of Prime Minister
Phan Van Khai.
Mr Cam added Vietnam has also put forth such initiatives as a project on a
greater involvement of APEC's developing
economies in mutual recognition agreements, a proposal for stronger
co-operation in implementing plans of collective action
in the customs and standardisation areas, an initiative on the guidelines
of building legal frameworks for e-commerce and a
proposal for co-operation in post-harvest technology exchange.
At the eighth APEC summit, Vietnam's new proposals were included in an
official statement of the summit meeting. Its
initiatives are about the training of young generations on the
knowledge-based economy and possible negative effects of
e-commerce and information technology (IT) application on traditional
services, the deputy PM elaborated.
He reaffirmed that Vietnam's APEC entry is a right step with a view to
realising its foreign policy of multilateralisation,
diversification and active international integration.
Joining this forum has opened opportunities for Vietnam to keep abreast of
the most important issues of international
economic life and co-operation, promote multilateral co-operation of mutual
benefits and develop bilateral ties with developed
economies and major trade partners. (VNA)
60 million hits for Nhan Dan Online
Sixty million visitors have accessed to Nhan Dan Online as of November 17
since the newspaper made its first debut on the
Internet on June 21, 1998, according to statistics of the Vietnam Data
Communications Company.
Since early November, an average of 125,000 people visit Nhan Dan Internet
everyday, an increase of 25,000 visitors
compared to that of September. Of this figure, 105,000 visitors access to
the Vietnamese edition. The remaining 20,000 visit
the English edition. On November 17, a record 240,426 visitors accessed
Nhan Dan Online.
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