Vietnam shares with the UN Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) the difficulties that it has been experiencing from changes in the world and will continue to stand side by side with the organisation in overcoming the situation.

Vietnam’s Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Thanh Son made the statement at the 190 th session of the UNESCO Executive Board, which is underway in Paris , France , from October 8. This three-day session is focusing on major reforms for the organisation, particularly ways to spend budget wisely and long and medium-term financial plans for 2014-15.

Son, who is also Chairman of the UNESCO Vietnam National Committee, also stressed that Vietnam welcomes UNESCO for giving special priority to the “Education for All” (EFA) and supports the organisation’s initiatives and efforts to speed up the programme to meet its deadline in 2015.

Vietnam considers education as its top national policy and spends 20 percent of its total budget for education, he elaborated.

He also spoke of UNESCO’s achievements in the implementation of the “Education for sustainable development” and General Director Irina Bokova’s initiative to institutionalise the decade of education for sustainable development after 2014.

Vietnam is conducting the second phase of the programme (2012-2014) and has achieved important achievements in improving public awareness on sustainable development, he added.

Son praised UNESCO’s recognition of the world’s cultural, natural and intangible heritages as contributing to raising people’s awareness on preserving and promoting cultural values of the heritages humans possess. He also valued UNSECO’s programmes and initiatives in the science and information fields.

Talking with the Vietnam News Agency correspondent in France , Son noted that UNESCO’s activities in the past time have connected communities in the world and promoted sustainable development in countries, including Vietnam .

The Vietnamese government’s efforts in fostering culture development in combination with UNESCO’s activities have earned the organisation’s recognition for a number of heritages in the country, bringing in visible benefits for Vietnamese people and heightening the country’s image and position in international friends.

He also said that UNESCO highly appreciated Vietnam ’s efforts, cooperation and sharing in preserving the recognised cultural heritages and those which are awaiting the organisation’s recognition.

Vietnam will, together with UNESCO, promote the decade of sustainable culture to associate its activities with the national UNESCO Committee and UNESCO as well as make efforts to build a strong Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia , he stressed.
During his stay in France, Deputy Foreign Minister Son, who is also Chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, met with the overseas Vietnamese community there.-VNA