To make Vietnamese culture and people closer and more attractive in the eyes of international friends...

The image of Vietnam's country, culture and people is becoming more and more familiar and attractive in the eyes of international friends, helping us have more resources to develop the country.

Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Hoai Son expressed his opinion that the image of the country, culture and people of Vietnam is becoming increasingly closer and more attractive in the eyes of international friends. (Source: Quochoi)

Promoting Vietnamese culture to the world has many meanings, especially in spreading soft power, building courage and confidence for Vietnamese culture and people. At the same time, forming a brand for Vietnamese cultural and artistic products as well as supporting the socio -economic development of the country. Therefore, in recent years, through many Party Congresses, in many different resolutions and documents, promoting Vietnamese culture has become one of the important tasks.

Specifically, in the Cultural Diplomacy Strategy to 2030, cultural promotion is one of the main contents. Accordingly, in terms of goals, we identify: “Promoting cultural values, images of the country and people of Vietnam, focusing on spreading the values, thoughts, views on life, and progressive and noble worldviews of the Vietnamese people, especially through the images and ideological values of President Ho Chi Minh and famous people honored by UNESCO; paying attention to developing the cultural industry, expanding the market for Vietnamese goods, products, and services; building Vietnam into an attractive destination for international cultural exchange and promoting local branding”.

I think that the work of promoting Vietnamese culture abroad also faces many difficulties and barriers. First of all, I see the great efforts of ministries, branches and localities in strengthening cultural promotion activities. These promotional activities, through many channels, diplomatic channels, at different events both domestically and internationally, have helped make the image of the country and Vietnamese people more familiar and attractive in the eyes of international friends, helping us have more resources to develop the country.

However, compared to the country's cultural expectations and potential, we need to do more to promote culture to have more practical results and effects. In my opinion, the biggest difficulty is still resources. We lack financial resources, facilities and human resources for this activity.

Regarding finance, it is clear that the current budget allocation mechanism causes many difficulties for organizing cultural promotion activities. Not only large activities such as World Expo but also small activities such as delegations entering and leaving are also entangled in many financial regulations.

Channels for mobilizing external resources also face difficulties due to problems with public-private partnership mechanisms or management and use of public assets.

Performing traditional Hue Ao Dai at "Vietnam Ethnic Culture Day" 2021. (Source: Nhan Dan)

Regarding infrastructure, despite many efforts, cultural and sports institutions are still not qualified to host major events in Vietnam. Therefore, Vietnam has not become a priority and ideal location for major cultural and artistic events in the world. Therefore, it is difficult for us to promote our culture in our own country.

Not to mention, we still lack facilities to promote Vietnamese culture and tourism abroad. Despite setting targets, after many years of striving, we only have Vietnamese Cultural Centers in France and Laos. Tourism promotion centers are even more difficult...

Meanwhile, human resources are also the most important resource. Therefore, we must also frankly recognize that the staff working on cultural promotion of ministries, branches and localities have not met the requirements of this important task. Our remuneration policies are also not really good, so we cannot attract many talented people to participate in promotion activities.

These are the biggest difficulties besides the lack of coordination of promotional plans, or other issues related to mechanisms and policies. Overcoming these difficulties, I believe that our cultural promotion work will achieve results, helping the country develop even better.

In addition, reflecting on the promotion of culture from the eternal values of the Outline of Vietnamese Culture, we realize that principles such as nationalization, popularization, and scientificization have truly "lighted the way for the nation", creating a comprehensive strength for the nation. In the resistance war for national independence, culture was an important force to form the spiritual strength of the country, helping us overcome all difficulties and challenges, "leveling" all economic and military gaps with ASEAN countries and the world.

In the context of the country carrying out the renovation and international integration, building an advanced Vietnamese culture with strong national identity is the closest inheritance of the Outline, when the advanced represents scientific principles, strong national identity adds value to the national principles in the Outline. Protecting national identity must be associated with expanding international exchanges, selectively absorbing the good and progressive things in the cultures of other ethnic groups.

In that process, promoting national culture is carried out through cultural diplomacy activities, developing cultural industries. From there, culture affirms national sovereignty, national values, so that the new vitality of culture creates goals and motivation for the sustainable development of the country...

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