Ambassador Le Hong Truong (third from right) and representatives of the Overseas Vietnamese Association in Greece (Photo: baoquocte.vn)
At the meeting, the Ambassador learned about the difficulties of the Overseas Vietnamese Association in Greece over the past time, asked about the situation of the Vietnamese community in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and discussed initiatives to promote the association's activities to cohere the community and support overseas Vietnamese to overcome difficulties during the pandemic.
The representatives of the Overseas Vietnamese Association in Greece congratulated the appointed ambassador and affirmed that the association always appreciates the community work of the embassy over the periods.
They also said that the Vietnamese community in Greece is small, they are mainly salaried workers and owners of restaurants. The community lives in solidarity, mutual affection, and always supports all activities of the embassy.
Many Vietnamese people in Greece, due to the language barrier, are not eligible for naturalization although the association and embassy have supported them when working with the Greek residence agencies. The life of the Vietnamese community has not yet recovered from the economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in 2019 until now, which has made people's lives more difficult.
Therefore, the representative of the association realized that it is very necessary to maintain the activities of the association to connect, share with and help overseas Vietnamese in difficult circumstances, and help them find jobs.
Sharing the initiative to reconnect and promote the activities of the association, the representative of the association said that the young generation of Vietnamese in Greece, most of whom have been naturalized, have great potential for developing knowledge in the next time.
This young generation age 23-35, has a level of understanding, enthusiasm, fluency in languages of Greek, English, and Vietnamese, and cultural understanding of the two countries.
Therefore, in order to step by step promote the activities of the association, the representative of the association proposed to gather a group of young people to carry out a number of activities for the community under the advice of the association's Liaison Committee and the embassy. Through these activities, potential factors will be discovered, gradually developing the Overseas Vietnamese Association in Greece.
Ambassador Le Hong Truong agreed with the initiative of the association's Liaison Committee, affirming that the embassy always supports and accompanies the Overseas Vietnamese Association in Greece, and will soon organize a meeting of the association with its members, who are local young Vietnamese./.