Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Cong Tac leads Vietnam delegation to attend UNESCO General Conference's 38th session (Source: VNA)Paris (VNA) - A Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Cong Tac is attending the 38th session of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) General Conference that kicked off in Paris on November 3.
The two-week-long event draws representatives from 195 member states, associate members, together with observers, intergovernmental organisations and non-governmental organisations.
They are expected to discuss UNESCO’s orientations for the next two years, with regard to the sustainable development goals that were approved at the UN Summit in New York in September.
UNESCO will also organise celebrations of its 70 th founding anniversary during which it will review the accomplishments in the educational, scientific and cultural fields that have contributed to maintaining peace, and ensuring justice, law and human rights are respected.
During this meeting, Vietnam will run for the post in the UNESCO Executive Board in the 2015-2019 tenure. Deputy Minister Tac is scheduled to deliver a speech at a plenary on November 6.
At the session, Vietnam will seek UNESCO’s recognition of its International Centre of Physics and International Centre for Research and Postgraduate Training in Mathematics as UNESCO’s category 2 centres, Tac said.
The country will also introduce its gender equality education programme being implemented at universities nationwide, propose establishing a gender equality education network in the world, and submit to the General Conference several documents related to Vietnamese cultural heritage.
Before the opening ceremony of the 38 th session, Deputy Minister Tac had a meeting with Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova.
On the sidelines of the session, Pham Sanh Chau, Head of the External Culture and UNESCO Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and General Secretary of UNESCO Vietnam told Vietnam News Agency correspondents that Vietnam will introduce an initiative to pilot a sustainable development-driven low-carbon biosphere model in Cu Lao Cham that aims for wider global application.
The country will present its dossier on the practice of worshiping Mau (Mother goddesses) and seek for UNESCO’s recognition of the practice as part of intangible cultural heritage of humankind, Chau said.-VNA
