Signing of coordination regulations in people's foreign affairs

Overview of the conference. Photo: TG

Attending and chairing the conference were comrades: Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairwoman of the Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee; Tran Khanh Thuc - Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Nguyen Hong Ky - Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial Union of Friendship Organizations.

In his opening speech, Mr. Tran Khanh Thuc - Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs said that up to now, Nghe An has had people-to-people friendship relations with 30 countries; 43 provinces and cities, contributing practically to consolidating, expanding and deepening the friendly relations and mutual understanding between the Vietnamese people and other countries; enhancing the position of Nghe An province, creating a premise for socio-economic development.

On average, each year, about 55 foreign non-governmental organizations operate in Nghe An with 40 programs and projects with aid capital of 4-5 million USD; every year, the province organizes a program to meet overseas Vietnamese in Nghe An to visit their homeland and celebrate the traditional New Year...

Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs Tran Khanh Thuc spoke at the ceremony. Photo: TG

However, the province's people's foreign affairs work in recent times has had difficulties and limitations such as: the work of mobilizing foreign non-governmental aid has had modest results, the work of overseas Vietnamese has not yet promoted its potential, the contribution of overseas Vietnamese to the construction of the homeland, the activities of people-to-people exchange with foreign localities have not taken place regularly... people's foreign affairs activities are still passive, and have not yet shaped a long-term and stable strategy.

In addition, the awareness of some local Party committees and authorities about people's foreign affairs work is not adequate, the force specializing in foreign affairs work is still small, propaganda work is still inadequate, funding for performing tasks is difficult, especially the coordination between the Fatherland Front at all levels with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Union of Friendship Organizations is sometimes not smooth and effective.

Comrade Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairwoman of the Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee spoke at the ceremony. Photo: TG

At the conference, comrade Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairman of the Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee also frankly assessed that in the past time, each agency and unit of the Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Nghe An Union of Friendship Organizations have paid attention to people's foreign affairs work, however, the coordination between the parties has not been really close, has not fully promoted the potential and strengths, and has not achieved the highest efficiency.

Therefore, after the process of exchange, discussion and agreement, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee, the Provincial Department of Foreign Affairs and the Standing Committee of the Provincial Union of Friendship Organizations proceeded to sign the regulations on coordination of people's foreign affairs work, demonstrating the core role in implementing Directive No. 04-CT/TW dated July 6, 2011 of the Central Party Secretariat; Directive No. 02-CT/TU dated April 25, 2011 of the Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee "On continuing to innovate and improve the effectiveness of people's foreign affairs work in the new situation".

Leaders of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Provincial Union of Friendship Organizations signed the coordination regulations in the presence of the attending delegates. Photo: TG

He hoped that this would be a premise to realize the desire for close coordination between the three pillars of people's foreign affairs; propose positive solutions, contributing to making people's foreign affairs of Nghe An province more effective, meeting the requirements and tasks in the new period, contributing to building a strong national solidarity bloc, successfully implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the 19th Provincial Party Congress.

Delegates take souvenir photos at the signing ceremony. Photo: TG

According to the signed regulations, the parties will coordinate in the following contents: consulting and implementing information reporting on people's foreign affairs; implementing cooperation activities and friendly exchanges between people in the province and people of other countries to build and develop friendly relations; information and propaganda work to mobilize people of all walks of life to carry out people's foreign affairs; mobilizing and utilizing international resources and the Vietnamese community abroad; building and improving the operational capacity of the network of cadres working on people's foreign affairs.