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| VUFO President Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga presents the insignia to Belgian Ambassador to Vietnam Paul Jansen (Photob: baoquocte.vn) |
So said Nguyen Phuong Nga, President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO), on July 13 during a ceremony to present the “For peace and friendship among nations” insignia to outgoing Belgian Ambassador to Vietnam Paul Jansen in recognition of his valuable contributions throughout his term of office in Vietnam.
Speaking at the ceremony, VUFO President Nguyen Phuong Nga affirmed that Belgium was one of the western countries that established diplomatic relations early with Vietnam on March 22, 1973.
“Over the past 50 years, the relationship between our two countries has developed very well in many fields. The two sides have exchanged many high-level delegations, most recently the visit to Belgium by National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue (November 2021). The two countries have strengthened close cooperation within the framework of multilateral forums, such as at the United Nations, Francophone, ASEM and ASEAN,” she said.
According to Ms Nga, Ambassador Paul Jansen has actively supported Vietnam in the process of negotiating and signing the EU - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU - Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).
He has visited and worked with many provinces and cities in Vietnam to promote cooperation, especially in the fields of seaport development and high-tech agriculture, clean energy, renewable energy, and governance ability and green growth.
Ambassador Paul Jansen coordinated and assisted in organizing the reception, arranging working programs for delegations of Belgian agencies and businesses to Vietnam, and of Vietnam to Belgium, to survey the market and study the potential and possibility of cooperation in the fields of science-technology, commerce and education.
The Ambassador also worked closely with the Vietnam-Belgium Friendship Association and VUFO, enthusiastically participating in organizing friendship, cooperation and people-to-people exchanges; typically the program "Vietnam-Belgium economic and cultural exchange festival in Hai Phong City", with the participation of many companies and cultural activists of the two countries in October 2019.
In November 2020, he gave gifts to 6,200 preschool children in the central provinces within the framework of the program “Mitigating Preschool Children’s Barriers to Learning in Disadvantaged and Ethnically Diverse Districts (BaMi)'' with a budget of EUR4,142,000.
For his part, Jansen expressed his honour to receive the insignia and highlighted VUFO’s important role in boosting the relationship between Belgium and Vietnam.
Appreciating the assistance from the Vietnamese side throughout his tenure, he hoped the bilateral relations will grow further in the future./.