A framework agreement was inked in Hanoi on April 18 to mark a new page in the presence of Germany’s Friedrich Elbert Stiftung (FES) in Vietnam.

President of the Vietnam Unions of Friendship Associations (VUFO) Vu Xuan Hong and FES Representative in Vietnam Erwin Schweisshelm signed the document.

As one of the first foreign organisations to open a representative office in Vietnam, FES representative office made debut on October 4, 1990 in accordance to a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Vietnamese government. Over the past years, FES has positively taken part in supporting Vietnam’s renewal cause and administration reforms as well as its door-opening policies. It has also helped improve capacity for Vietnamese public servants.

FES has built strong ties with various agencies of Vietnam and served as a bridge linking Nordrhein-Westfalen state of Germany with the Ministry of Justice and the Central Institute for Economic Management Study, as well as the Hamburg state and Bac Giang province.

FES is the first foreign non-governmental organisation to sign such agreement with Vietnam under the government’s new decree on the registration and operation of foreign NGOs in Vietnam, which was adopted in 2012.-VNA