Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh talks about Uncle Ho's visit to Romania and the relationship between the two countries.

On the evening of January 20 (local time), right after arriving in Romania, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his wife had the first activities during the official visit.

The Prime Minister visited and talked with officials and staff of the Embassy and representatives of the Vietnamese community in Romania.

Although the meeting took place in the evening, since the afternoon, a large number of overseas Vietnamese had gathered at the Vietnamese Embassy headquarters, waiting to welcome Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his delegation. The meeting room was full, with many people standing to share and listen to the opinions of the Prime Minister and his delegation.

At the beginning of the meeting, Vietnamese Ambassador to Romania Do Duc Thanh said that the people and the embassy were looking forward to and were happy to welcome the Prime Minister back to visit a locality that he had been associated with for many years when he was a student and a diplomat.

Although the Vietnamese community in Romania is not large in number, only about 600 people, it has promoted the tradition of solidarity, "mutual love", helping each other to stabilize their lives and always looking towards their roots and homeland.

The Ambassador said that the relationship between Romania and Vietnam has been developing well for nearly 75 years now, demonstrated by the signing of free trade and investment protection agreements, with two-way trade turnover increasing by 18% per year.

Mr. Nguyen Van Toi, Chairman of the Vietnamese Business Association in Romania, said that Romania's demand for labor is very large. When many Vietnamese workers go abroad to work, the amount of remittances sent back to the country is very high. This is an opportunity for Vietnam's labor export activities.

However, Mr. Toi also pointed out the reality that some Vietnamese workers break their contracts and go to third countries. He hopes that ministries and branches will find solutions to force workers to strictly comply with regulations when going to Romania to work.

Responding to this content, Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Van Thanh said that there are currently about 700,000 Vietnamese workers working abroad. Romania is a very potential market, able to receive workers at many different levels with a good income compared to the general level. In fact, the enforcement of labor discipline in Romania is not good, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs has requested to rectify this, when sending people abroad, it is necessary to train and manage to prevent workers from running away.

Deputy Minister Le Van Thanh said that during the visit, the two sides are expected to sign a cooperation document in this field, thereby creating conditions to send more and more Vietnamese workers to Romania, both to better ensure the legitimate and legal rights and interests, and to raise awareness of law observance, discipline and working style of Vietnamese workers.

Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh first respectfully conveyed the warm greetings, kind regards, and best wishes of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to the Vietnamese community in Romania in particular and in Europe in general.

The Prime Minister shared that the Vietnam-Romania relationship began in 1955, when Romania was the first country to mobilize hundreds of thousands of people to support Vietnam's struggle for national independence.

Before the visit, the Prime Minister expressed his emotion when reviewing photos of President Ho Chi Minh visiting Romania and seeing hundreds of thousands of Romanian people welcoming him. The affection between the people of the two countries has lasted for nearly 75 years.

Having lived, studied and worked in Romania, the Prime Minister emphasized that Romanian people are very kind, friendly and helpful to Vietnam. During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Romania was ready to support Vietnam with 300,000 doses of vaccine.

Therefore, it is necessary to preserve the image of Vietnamese people in Romania and promote the tradition of solidarity and cooperation between the two countries. When meeting Romanian leaders at international forums, the Prime Minister always asked the Romanian side to support and create favorable conditions for the Vietnamese community to do business and live.

The Party and the State always consider the overseas Vietnamese community as an inseparable part of the Vietnamese ethnic community. This is a wise policy, a major policy to institutionalize, in which the Land Law (amended) was recently passed by the National Assembly, according to which overseas Vietnamese have equal access to land with people in the country.

The Prime Minister also raised the issue of preserving Vietnamese culture and language for the community because "If culture exists, the nation exists; if culture is lost, the nation is lost." The Prime Minister hopes that women will teach their children Vietnamese and preserve Vietnamese culture.

The Prime Minister was pleased that the Vietnamese community abroad is growing stronger, more prestigious, and maturing quickly. The Prime Minister requested the construction of a website for information about Vietnamese people here so that any problems can be responded to quickly, especially recently when people "shared their food and clothes" to help many Vietnamese people from Ukraine.

The Prime Minister shared that the Vietnamese community living, working and doing business here also contributes to strengthening the relationship between the two countries.

According to the Prime Minister, it is necessary to increase foreign language training for Vietnamese workers, equip them with and disseminate local laws, and skills to advocate for themselves when problems arise.

The Prime Minister requested the Vietnamese Embassy to take care of the Vietnamese people's affairs as if they were its own; to treat the Vietnamese people as family members in handling work; and to not have a bureaucratic attitude.

The Prime Minister suggested that ethics and human relationships should be respected. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should listen to people's aspirations and design appropriate policies.