Vietnam Enters the New Year on a
Sound Footing
Successful Webinar Discusses the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam
February 6, 2021. Vietnamese Ambassador to
Canada Pham Cao Phong speaking at the
webinar.
The Canada-Vietnam Friendship Society hosted a
successful webinar on February 6 which provided
information on the 13th Congress of the Communist
Party of Vietnam held in Hanoi from January 25 to
February 1. Well over a hundred people from coast
to coast across Canada, the United States,
Britain, Scotland and even as far away as
Argentina, took part.
The webinar, held to coincide with the 91st
anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party
of Vietnam on February 3, 1930, opened and closed
with videos of the Congress proceedings and
cultural performances celebrating this important
event in the life of the Vietnamese people.
In his keynote presentation, entitled "Vietnam's
Development: Overview and the Way Forward," his
Excellency Pham Cao Phong, Vietnam's Ambassador to
Canada, delivered an informative report on the
work and decisions of the 13th Congress. He also
discussed in depth questions raised by
participants about the nation-building project of
the Vietnamese Party and people and its process of
renewal, known as Doi Moi, and elaborated
how Vietnam has been so successful in controlling
the spread of COVID-19 during this global
pandemic.
Ambassador Pham Cao Phong gave an overview of the
role of the revolutionary leadership of the
Communist Party of Vietnam in leading the people
to achieve historic milestones including defeating
French colonialism in 1954 and liberating the
country from U.S. imperialism in 1975, reunifying
the country. Since then the Vietnamese people have
made outstanding progress in their nation-building
project.
Under the leadership of the Communist Party,
Vietnam's socio-political system is stable;
national defence and security are guaranteed,
independence and sovereignty maintained, and the
material and spiritual well-being of the people
given utmost importance.
In terms of foreign affairs, Ambassador Pham
underscored that Vietnam has established
diplomatic relations with 189 countries of the 193
members of the United Nations and has economic
relations with 230 partner organizations
worldwide. Vietnam is a member of most
international and regional organizations,
including the United Nations, World Bank,
International Monetary Fund (IMF), Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Asia European
Meeting (ASEM), and has negotiated to sign 17 free
trade agreements with 58 partners.
In the growing friendship between Vietnam and
Canada, Ambassador Pham emphasized that the two
countries are jointly committed to viewing two-way
trade and investment as the driving force of the
bilateral relationship, and will continue to pay
attention to each other's markets to boost trade
and investment in key sectors. Vietnam and Canada
also work together to address global challenges
such as climate change, food security and
environmental protection, he added.
Participants listened attentively as Ambassador
Pham explained key initiatives of the last 30
years and more of Vietnam's Doi Moi.
Thanks to these measures Vietnam has been
transformed from a poor country that had to import
food, with a per capita income of only U.S.$86 in
the early 1980s, to a "middle income" country with
a per capita income of about U.S.$2,800 and is now
the second largest rice exporter in the world.
Last year alone, while the world's GDP growth fell
to an average of -5 per cent, Vietnam's economy
still achieved a growth rate of 2.91 per cent.
Vietnam's experience with organizing and
mobilizing the entire country to contain and
prevent the spread of COVID-19 was also a subject
of great interest discussed by Ambassador Pham. He
emphasized that the country's success was
attributable to early and co-ordinated
intervention by the government, and the citizens
following strict isolation protocols supported by
a well-organized health care system.
In his concluding remarks, Steve Rutchinski, who
moderated the webinar on behalf of the
Canada-Vietnam Friendship Society, conveyed thanks
to Ambassador Pham for his informative
presentation, and expressed admiration for the way
that the Party, State and people of Vietnam face
the reality of the world, making their own
decisions, with the goal of serving the interests
of the people, developing the economy, maintaining
sovereignty and promoting peace. Vietnam's
contributions and experience, he said, are very
important in the struggle of the international
working class to solve these problems.
The webinar was widely reported in the Vietnamese
media, including The World and Vietnam and
Nhan Dan, the official press of the
Communist Party of Vietnam. For Vietnamese
media reports click
here.
The webinar concluded with an announcement that
the next event of the Canada-Vietnam Friendship
Society will be a book release on February 20 by
Dr. Nguyen Dai Trang, an internationally known
scholar on the works of Ho Chi Minh. Her new work
is entitled Ho Chi Minh: The Black Race and
Selected Works on Racism. The book
introduces 20 articles by President Ho Chi Minh,
including thirteen that were written in the
1924-25 period, and seven articles in 1922-24 and
1963-66. President Ho Chi Minh wrote about the
struggles of Black people nearly a century ago,
and Dr. Nguyen notes that the writing has
relevance today.
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 4 - February 14, 2021
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/MS51041.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
