President leaves for China on a state visit
State President Tran Duc Luong leaves Hanoi today for an official visit to
China at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart,
Jiang Zemin.
The president is accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Cong Tan;
Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien; Head of the
Presidential Office Nguyen Canh Dinh; Minister of Planning and Investment
Tran Xuan Gia; Minister of Fisheries Ta Quang
Ngoc; Acting Head of the Home Affairs Department of the Party Central
Committee Pham Quoc Anh; Deputy Minister of
Industry Le Quoc Khanh; Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and
Environment Hoang Van Huay; Assistant to the
President Nguyen Van Thanh; General Director of the Vietnam News Agency Ho
Tien Nghi; Chief Negotiator of the
Governmental Delegation on Vietnam-China Border Issues Le Cong Phung and
Vietnamese Ambassador to China Bui Hong
Phuc.
****
Christmas celebrated nationwide
Mr Pham The Duyet meets Cardinal Pham Dinh Tung.
Christmas has been celebrated with great joy these days throughout the country.
Mr Pham The Duyet, permanent member of the Politburo Standing Board of the
Communist Party of Vietnam and president
of the Presidium of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee paid
Christmas visits to the Episcopal Council and the
northern Protestant General Council in Hanoi on December 23.
At the Episcopal Council, Mr Duyet met with Cardinal Pham Dinh Tung, head
of the council. Mr Duyet conveyed Christmas
greetings from Party General Secretary Le Kha Phieu, President Tran Duc
Luong, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and
National Assembly Chairman Nong Duc Manh to Cardinal Pham Dinh Tung and
Vietnamese Catholics nationwide.
He wished the cardinal and the Catholic community a merry Christmas. He
praised the Catholics for their practical
contributions to national construction.
He said he hoped that the cardinal and the Episcopal Council would continue
to encourage the Catholics to make more
contributions to the country.
Cardinal Pham Dinh Tung, on behalf of the Catholic community, thanked the
Party and State for the attention to the
community and promised to encourage the Catholics to take an active part in
the course of national construction.
Mr Duyet paid visits to the northern Protestant General Council, the Hanoi
Protestant Council, visited the family of the late
Shepherd Bui Hoanh Thu, former deputy head of the Protestant General
Council and Shepherd Hoang Kim Phuc, head of
the Protestant General Council.
In Hanoi, a delegation of the municipal Party and People's Committees and
Fatherland Front headed by Nguyen Phu Trong,
Politburo member of the Party Central Committee and Secretary of the Hanoi
Party Committee, paid a visit to the northern
Protestant General Council.
Mayor Hoang Van Nghien also called on Cardinal Pham Dinh Tung, head of the
Vietnam Episcopal Council and Archbishop
of Hanoi's diocese.
On this occasion, the municipal Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese
Catholics reviewed three years implementing the
movement 'Building good Catholic parishes, good life and fine religion'
among the Catholics. It also encouraged Catholics
in 62 parishes in Hanoi to live the gospel amidst the nation and
participate in all movements launched by the municipal
authorities.
In Ho Chi Minh City, tens of thousands of Catholics and Protestants in more
than 200 Catholic parishes and 40 Protestant
councils organised various activities to celebrate the day.
A delegation of Ho Chi Minh City Fatherland Front and a delegation of the
Board for Religious Affairs made well-wishing
visits to Catholics and Catholic dignitaries in the city.
The Women Union chapter visited and presented gifts to nuns in the city.
Meanwhile in Phat Diem diocese in northern Ninh Binh province, more than
138,000 Catholics celebrated Christmas in their
parishes as the headquarters, the Phat Diem Church is under repair.
The provincial Party and People's Committees, and Fatherland Front visited
local priests on this occasion.
This year's Christmas celebrations were serves as the preparations for the
marking of 100th anniversary of Phat Diem
diocese on April 19, 2001.
Christmas was solemnly held in other localities in the country.
****
Ho Chi Minh City Party Congress closes
Ho Chi Minh City closed its seventh Party Congress on December 23, after
five days of sittings.
The congress, which drew 400 delegates, representing more than 101,560
local Party members, agreed to the city's main
goals of yearly 11% GDP growth in the next five years and a per-capita
yearly income of US $2,000 in the year 2005.
Other targets include a 13% yearly increase from the industrial and
construction sectors, 9.5% from services and trade and
20% from export turnover.
The congress elected a 51-member executive committee of the city's Party
Committee, seventh tenure, with Nguyen Minh
Triet as secretary and Vo Van Cuong and Huynh Dam as deputy secretaries.
It also elected a delegation of 25 outstanding Party members to attend the
ninth National Party Congress scheduled to be held
early next year. (VNA)
****
Lao Party officials end Vietnam visit
The comprehensive relations between Vietnam and Laos in general, and
between Ho Chi Minh City and Vientiane in
particular, will see new developments, especially in economic and
commercial co-operation.
This was said by Mr Nguyen Minh Triet, politburo member and Secretary of
the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee while
receiving a Lao delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs
Minister Somsavat Lengsavad on December 23.
The Lao delegation visited Ho Chi Minh City from December 21-24 as the
second leg of their visit to Vietnam from
December 20.
Mr Somsavat Lengsavad, who is also member of Lao People's Revolutionary
Party Central Committee, said he hoped that
the solidarity and fraternal friendship and comprehensive co-operation
between the two countries would be brought into a
new height.
Earlier, the Lao officials visited orchards and dairy farms in Binh Duong
and Binh Phuoc provinces. They also called at
several historic and cultural sites in the city.
The Lao delegation left Ho Chi Minh City for home on December 24,
successfully ending their visit to Vietnam.
****
Cultural programme to welcome new millennium
in Ho Chi Minh City
The cultural programme to welcome the new millennium will be held in Ho Chi
Minh City in three places, organiser said.
The event will take place in front of the city's grand theatre, at the
International Square, on the bank of the Nhieu Loc canal
and on the Truong Sa-Hoang Sa street.
There will be 1,000 people in the traditional costume of the 54 ethnic
minorities and majority peoples of Vietnam performing
traditional dances and singing along the Saigon River. A special people
meet artists get together will take place inside the Tao
Dan Park will be one of the highlights of the night event.
****
Construction of biggest sports centre starts
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Sports and Physical Education held a
ceremony on December 24 to start the
construction of a new sports competition centre.
The project, worth VND 66 billion, will be the biggest and most modern
centre of its kind in Vietnam.
The centre will be completed by April 2003 in preparation for the
organisation of events of SEA Games 2003 to be hosted by
Vietnam.
_______________________________________________________
KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki - Finland
+358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081
e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.kominf.pp.fi
_______________________________________________________
Kominform list for general information.
Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Anti-Imperialism list for geopolitics.
Subscribe/unsubscribe messages:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
_______________________________________________________
