Vietnamese farm produce week in France (Source: VNA)Paris (VNA) – The Vietnam Provincial Roadshow in France took place inParis from June 25-27, as part of activities to mark the 45th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties and five years of the Vietnam-France strategicpartnership.
The event, jointly held by Vietnam’s Ministry of ForeignAffairs, Embassy in France and the Permanent Delegation of Vietnam to UNESCO,attracted the participation of officials of Hanoi, the Mekong Delta city of CanTho, and central Phu Yen and Quang Ngai provinces, ministries, sectors andbusinesses of involved localities.
Vietnamese Ambassador to France and Head of the VietnamPermanent Delegation to UNESCO Ambassador Tran Thi Hoang Mai also joined activitiesof the Vietnamese delegation.
Within the framework of the programme, the delegation heldworking session with Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the French DevelopmentAgency (AFD) Philippe Bauduin, President of the Regional Council ofIle-de-France Valérie Pécresse, and Director General of the union of Frenchcities (Cites Unies France – CUF) Geneviève Sevrin.
They attended a workshop on intensifying Vietnamese-Frenchlocality partnership, and another on regional planning and constructionexperience of Paris capital, met with representatives from French localitiessuch as Ile-de-France, Bordeaux, Val-de-Marne, Poitiers and Cergy-Pontoise and majorbusinesses including Vinci, Dassault Systemes, Pollutec, Seche Environnement,and JCDecaux, and visited several health clinics and waste treatment facilitiesin Paris.
During these events, both sides spoke highly of positivedevelopment in the bilateral strategic partnership, in which cooperation at thelocal level and people-to-people exchange are an important cooperation pillarthat need to be enhanced.
At present, 38 French localities have set up cooperativeties with 18 Vietnamese provinces and cities.
The two sides agreed to coordinate in organising the 11th Vietnamese-French locality cooperation conference in France’s Toulouse city inApril 2019, maintain successful cooperative models such as Hanoi –Ile-de-France, Hanoi – Toulouse, Hai Phong – Brest, Lao Cai – Aquitaine, Hue –Aquitaine, Yen Bai – Val de Marne, Can Tho – La Seyne-sur-Mer, and encouragethe establishment of new pairs of localities.
Along with such traditional cooperative fields as health,education, water-environment, heritage preservation and sustainable ruraldevelopment, it is necessary to expand collaboration to new areas like smartcity building and digital economy, they said.
The French side committed to maintaining ODA provision forVietnam, while appreciating the role of Vietnamese localities in successfullycarrying out France’s ODA projects in Vietnam.
On this occasion, Chairman of the Hanoi People’s CommitteeNguyen Duc Chung and President of the Regional Council of Ile-de-France ValériePécresse signed an action programme of the two localities for 2018-2021.
The Vietnam Provincial Roadshow is an effort by the ForeignMinistry to coordinate with Vietnam’s representative offices abroad in helpingVietnamese localities tighten their cooperation with foreign partners.-VNA
VNA
