Promoting traditional Vietnamese cultural and tourism cooperation

At the beginning of the meeting, Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy expressed her joy and welcomed the delegation for their visit and work at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The Deputy Minister affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to cultural and tourism cooperation with China. Through cultural diplomacy and people-to-people exchanges, the two sides have achieved many impressive results in the cooperation process. Along with that, the Deputy Minister expressed her impression of the development of China's cultural industry and the policies and measures to develop culture and tourism of this country.

Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy proposed many solutions for cultural and tourism cooperation between Vietnam and China.

The Deputy Minister assessed that the cooperative relationship between Vietnam and China is a relationship rich in tradition as since 1992, the two governments have signed the Cultural Cooperation Agreement. Based on the actual situation, the two sides periodically sign the Implementation Plan of the Cultural and Tourism Agreement as well as a number of other cooperation documents. Notably, in October 2022, during the official visit to China by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Minister of Culture and Tourism of China signed the "Cultural and Tourism Cooperation Plan for the period 2023-2027". Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy emphasized that the signing of a series of documents has opened up many opportunities for cultural cooperation between the two countries. Tourism cooperation between the two countries also has more room for development from here.

Along with that, since 2018, the two sides have established a regular mechanism to alternately organize the "Annual Meeting at the Ministry Leadership Level", contributing significantly to promoting substantive and effective cultural and tourism cooperation between the two countries.

Currently, Vietnam is discussing with China to establish a Vietnamese Cultural Center in Beijing. Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy commented that in general, cooperation activities at ministerial and local levels of the two countries are being actively implemented; gradually developing cultural and tourism cooperation between the two countries to develop well and sustainably, worthy of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Vietnam and China.

Deputy Minister Nhieu Quyen agreed with the proposals of Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy.

Particularly in tourism, Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy expressed her joy when the Chinese Government decided to include Vietnam in the pilot list for opening group tourism in the second phase, from March 15, 2023. The Deputy Minister affirmed that this is a big step forward when both countries are making efforts to restore tourism after a long period of being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the exchange of visitors, many encouraging signals were pointed out by Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy when China has always been the leading market sending visitors to Vietnam tourism. Vietnam has also been one of the five largest foreign markets sending visitors to China for many years. In 2019, the number of Vietnamese visitors to China reached 7,948,000. In the first 5 months of 2023 alone, Chinese visitors to Vietnam reached 398,891. The number of visitors traveling between the two countries continues to increase as attractive tourism products are continuously launched, attracting visitors.

In order to develop the Vietnam-China cultural and tourism cooperation relationship commensurate with its existing potential, through the talks, Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy hopes to consult and study China's development experience; at the same time, the two sides will discuss to effectively implement the Cultural and Tourism Cooperation Plan for the period 2023-2027 of the two countries. In particular, focusing on promoting cooperation activities in the fields of cultural development, cultural industry and tourism between the two countries.

The meeting took place in a friendly and open atmosphere.

Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy also suggested many solutions to strengthen cooperation such as continuing to effectively implement tourism cooperation agreements signed with China and its localities. Based on the signed agreements, Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy proposed that the two sides should increase contacts at the ministry level; make good use of the bilateral and multilateral cooperation platform to jointly exploit the cultural and tourism development potential of each country. The Deputy Minister also hoped that the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism would support Vietnam when Vietnam organizes cultural and tourism promotion activities in China.

The leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also requested relevant units of Vietnam to coordinate with localities and enterprises of China to ensure safety and encourage citizens of the two countries to travel to each other after both Vietnam and China have fully opened international tourism. In addition, the two sides need to strengthen coordination in managing the quality of tourism services at destinations in each country to meet the needs of tourists; join hands to improve tourism infrastructure, build and develop tourism products suitable to the tastes of tourists of each side. On this occasion, Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy also requested the Chinese side to consider the possibility of supporting tourism human resource training for Vietnam, promoting the exchange of tourism management experiences.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Nhieu Quyen expressed his gratitude for the warm welcome from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for the delegation. Deputy Minister Nhieu Quyen stated: “Vietnam and China are two neighboring countries, connected by mountains and rivers, with many cultural similarities. The cultural and tourism cooperation relationship has been continuously cultivated by previous leaders. Today, we have the responsibility to preserve that relationship and pass it on to future generations.”

Cultural and tourism cooperation between Vietnam and China is going very well.

Regarding the proposals of Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy, Deputy Minister Nhieu Quyen said that these are all valuable initiatives to foster cultural and tourism cooperation between the two sides. In that spirit, Deputy Minister Nhieu Quyen completely agreed and hoped that the two sides would have many activities to implement the signed documents. The Deputy Minister added that he would fully support Vietnam when it needs to organize cultural and tourism events in China. In return, the Chinese side also hopes that Vietnam, within its capacity, will help its neighbor organize events, especially events of the Chinese Cultural Center in Hanoi.

In particular, Deputy Minister Nhieu Quyen welcomed Vietnam's plan to establish a Vietnamese Cultural Center in Beijing and assessed that this would be an important milestone in the cultural cooperation between the two countries; helping the Chinese people have the opportunity to understand and love Vietnamese culture more.

Regarding tourism, Deputy Minister Nhieu Quyen shared that for tourists entering through border gates, China will conduct research on policies to facilitate travel for Vietnamese tourists. Along with facilitating policies, the leaders of the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism hope that state management agencies and travel agencies of the two sides need to meet to discuss more solutions and exchange information to welcome more guests from each other; helping the tourism market of the two sides to become vibrant again soon. In addition, activities to promote culture and tourism between Vietnam and China need to be promoted to attract people to travel. China is also willing to support Vietnam in training human resources to meet the development of the tourism industry.

Previously, as reported, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung received Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Nhieu Quyen.

DINH TOAN; photo: TRAN HUAN, PHUONG TRUNG

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