Ambassador Dinh Toan Thang: Vietnam affirms its highest commitment to the development of the Francophone community.
Báo Tin Tức•03/10/2024
On the occasion of General Secretary and President To Lam's attendance at the 19th Francophone Summit in Paris, France from October 4-5, VNA reporters in Paris interviewed Vietnamese Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang about the cooperative relationship between Vietnam and the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF). The following is the content of the conversation:
Ambassador Dinh Toan Thang, Permanent Representative of the President to the Permanent Council of the Francophonie (CPF) and the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF). Photo: Thu Ha/VNA correspondent in France
The Francophone Summit will take place in early October in France. Could you please assess Vietnam's role in the OIF, especially in teaching French and developing economic cooperation? For many years, Vietnam has always participated fully and substantially in most of the priority issues of the Francophone community, from planning cooperation strategies to promoting reforms, so Vietnam is considered a developing country with a core role and an important voice of the OIF in the Asia-Pacific region. This is demonstrated by the fact that Vietnam has been repeatedly elected by OIF member countries to important positions in this organization, typically as Chairman and then Vice Chairman of the Economic Committee of the Francophone Permanent Council since 2019, member of the Board of Directors of the Francophone University Organization (AUF) since 2013, Vice President of the Francophone Parliamentary Union (APF) from 2019-2021. OIF and AUF both have representative offices in the Asia-Pacific region in Hanoi. Regarding French language teaching, Vietnam has implemented many initiatives and projects supported by member countries of the Francophone community, especially France, Canada, Belgium, and Switzerland. These projects include funding bilingual classes to teach French, training to improve professional skills for teachers and staff, and building French book spaces at universities. Since 2014, Vietnam has proactively made voluntary contributions to AUF, thereby contributing to improving French language education at 47 Vietnamese universities that are AUF members. Recently, Vietnam was one of the four leading countries to participate in the 2023 OIF survey on French in linguistic diversity, demonstrating Vietnam's pioneering role in assessing the current state of French and finding solutions to improve French language education. Regarding economic cooperation, Vietnam was the country that initiated the economic cooperation in the Francophone community at the 7th Francophone Summit held in 1997 in Hanoi. As Chairman of the Economic Committee, Vietnam has directed the drafting of the Francophone Economic Strategy 2021-2025 and the Digital Cooperation Strategy 2022-2026, and was the first country to welcome the Francophone Economic and Trade Promotion Delegation in March 2022 to implement the new economic cooperation orientation in the Francophone community, creating opportunities for more than 500 international and Vietnamese enterprises to meet, exchange and build partnerships. For Vietnam, raising the level of economic cooperation is also a favorable condition to promote cooperation areas in which we have strengths such as agriculture, telecommunications, digital services and open up many new trade partners, especially in Africa. General Secretary and President To Lam will attend the 19th Francophone Summit in France, and this is the first time that a top Vietnamese leader has attended this event. Some say that this could be a major turning point in Vietnam's cooperation with the OIF. What does the Ambassador think about this comment? Over the past 30 years, senior Vietnamese leaders have always attended Francophone Summits, demonstrating Vietnam's importance in cooperating with the OIF and its member countries. The first time a top Vietnamese leader has attended the conference is a new milestone, affirming Vietnam's highest-level commitment to the development of the Francophone community, as well as demonstrating Vietnam's efforts to enhance the image and presence of the Francophone community in the Asia-Pacific region, showing that Vietnam is ready to be a bridge to promote the relationship of the Francophone community with the region, thereby raising both the national and community's position in the international arena. This high-level foreign affairs activity will contribute significantly to the implementation of the foreign policy of multilateralization, diversification, proactive and active international integration, respect for multilateralism and demonstrating Vietnam's role as an active and responsible member of the international community in general and the Francophone community in particular. Through contacts and exchanges with leaders of the OIF and member countries, the partners all acknowledged Vietnam's commitment and contributions in the preparation process for this conference, and at the same time expected that on the basis of the solid foundation that the OIF and Vietnam have built together, Vietnam and the Francophone community will continue to foster and further enhance the long-term and sustainable cooperation and partnership in the coming time. According to the Ambassador, what should Vietnam and the OIF do to make this cooperative relationship more substantial and effective?
Joining the Francophone community is not only about sharing cultural and linguistic features, but also about sharing values and cooperation benefits. To enhance cooperation between Vietnam and OIF, it is necessary to first create strong changes in key areas to meet the development requirements of both the community and each country. In that spirit, Vietnam and OIF need to have a comprehensive policy on cooperation orientation towards developing member groups, combined well with the participation of developed countries. Vietnam has had extensive relations with developed Francophone countries. We need to urge OIF to support the development of a more comprehensive plan towards all areas of the developing Francophone space, including Africa, in the context that these countries are very interested in Vietnam's successful development model, want to strengthen further connections in the areas that this continent needs and the two sides have gained good experiences, such as agriculture, agricultural processing, communications, digital technology, human resource training, etc. In addition, to cooperate with the Francophone community in general and member countries in particular in depth, Vietnam needs to focus on quality French education; ensure there is a team of French-speaking human resources in related fields and specialties. For example, when implementing a Francophone cooperation project without human resources who know French, Vietnam may encounter difficulties and even miss cooperation opportunities. If Vietnam can ensure this, cooperation with the Francophone community in all areas from politics, economics, education, digital transformation, culture, etc. will be more effective. Finally, sharing common aspirations for peace, security, stability and the desire to promote cooperation to serve development and prosperity, Vietnam and the Francophone community will need to coordinate more strongly in many areas as well as on global issues. Francophone countries also always hope that Vietnam, a country with a glorious history in the struggle for national liberation, a great source of encouragement for many African countries, will continue to be a flag of peace and development for the community. Thank you very much, Ambassador!
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