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President Tran Dai Quang beat the traditional drum to open the Homeland Spring 2018. |
Present at the event were President Tran Dai Quang, Deputy-Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh, Deputy-Foreign Minister and Head of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, leaders of ministries and agencies , representatives of diplomatic and international organizations in Hanoi, together with over 1,000 overseas Vietnamese (OVs) representing over 4.5 million of OVs around the world.
Addressing the event, President Quang briefed participants on remarkable achievements of the country over the past year. Generally, the whole Party, people and army made great efforts to overcome difficulties and gain important results in various fields. Particularly, the country surpassed all targets set by the National Assembly. The country’s macro-economy remained stable and inflation was kept under control. The GDP growth raised to 6.81 per cent while the import-export turnover reached USD 425 billion, the highest ever. In addition, the national sovereignty was firmly protected, the national defense and security was strengthened and the socio-political order was maintained, contributing to reinforcing people’s belief and creating an exciting atmosphere in the whole society.
The President stressed that 2017 is a special year of the country’s history of external relations as Vietnam has successfully hosted the APEC Economic Leaders' Week and the 25th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. In the role of the host country of the APEC Year 2017, Vietnam has fulfilled their mission, marking a very important pillar in the country’s process of economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, showing Vietnamese spirit and wisdom, contributing to enhancing cooperation with neighbors, as well as regional and global countries.
The State leader reaffirmed that the country’s achievements were reached partly by contributions of OVs worldwide. Even though they often met difficulties when living aboard, OVs always supported each other in life, preserved cultural identities and paid attention to the national development. He said: “There are more and more OVs, especially young ones, achieving successes in education and training, science-technology, economy, and culture-society, which were recognized by their host countries’ authorities and citizens, contributing to bringing fame to the Vietnamese people.
President Quang also stated that the OVs is significant to the country as part of a body and the fatherland always welcomes them home. He hoped that the OVs would continue bringing into play their patriotism, joining hands with the whole-people and soldiers to build a prosperous country, and heighten its position in the world.
After his speech, President Tran Dai Quang beat the traditional drum to open the Homeland Spring 2018 and enjoyed artistic performances of the program.
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A performance at the program |
Previously, nearly 100 outstanding OVs representing over 1,000 OVs, who returned home to celebrate Tet (Lunar New Year Festival), was warmly welcomed by Party General-Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, leaders of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee and Hanoi city. After that, outstanding OVs took part in incense offering ceremony at Kinh Thien Palace of Thang Long Imperial Citadel and a ceremony to release carp to celebrate Kitchen Gods Day at the President Palace Relic Site.
Translated by Trung Thanh