The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on June 15 presented the insignia “For the Cause of Culture, Sports and Tourism” to Russian Ambassador Andrey G. Kovtun.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh spoke highly of the Russian ambassador’s contributions to developing culture, sports and tourism cooperation between the two countries.

With Andrey’s active contributions, the two countries have organised a number of Russian cultural days in Vietnam and Vietnamese days in Russia , he said, adding that Russia is now one of the top 10 markets of Vietnam ’s tourism.

The minister expressed his wish that Ambassador Andrey G. Kovtun will continue working to support Vietnam in cultural and art training and provide scholarships for Vietnamese postgraduates in this field.

He said he hopes that the Russian Government will create conditions for tourism cooperation between the two countries with a view to increasing the number of Russian tourists to Vietnam to 300,000 in 2014.

For his part, Ambassador Andrey G. Kovtun vowed to make more efforts in strengthening the friendship and cooperation between the two countries, especially in the field of culture, sports and tourism.-VNA