A red-carpet ceremony was held at Presidential Palace in Hanoi on May 24 to welcome the United Nations (UN) Secretary General Kofi Annan and his entourage on a three-day visit from May 23-25 at the invitation of State President Tran Duc Luong.
This is the first visit to Vietnam by Mr Annan during his term of office as UN Secretary General since 1997 and the second visit to Hanoi by a UN leader following Dr Boutros Ghali’s visit to Vietnam in 1993.
The visit takes place at a time when Vietnam-UN relations are developing finely, opening up a new stage of development in relations between the two sides.
Speaking at the welcome ceremony, State President Luong described the visit by Mr Annan and his wife as a evidence of the special attention given to Vietnam and its people by individual UN Secretary General in particular and the UN in general.
Mr Luong praised the UN’s role in the international community and its organizations in Vietnam for their active support for the country during the past year.
UN organisations have so far provided around US$2 billion in aid to Vietnam. The UN pledged to contribute US$425 million in the 2006-2010 period to Vietnam, of which nearly US$190 million has been committed by UNICEF, UNDP and UNFPA.
For his part, Mr Annan expressed his delight at the special relations between Vietnam and the UN, which have developed strongly during the past 30 years. He also appreciated the role played by Vietnam in implementing the UN Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).
Mr Anna praised Vietnam’s great achievements in recent years and said that he and the UN believe that Vietnam will obtain the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015. He added that he believes that Vietnam will even fulfill some goals ahead of 2015, for example the target of education universalisation.
While gap between the rich and the poor is increasing in many countries, Vietnam maintains balanced development and is narrowing the gap. The Vietnamese Government has made great efforts in poverty reduction, Mr Annan said.
Also in the morning, Mr Annan held talks with Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Dy Nien. He is scheduled to work with the National Steering Committee for Bird Flu Prevention and Control and then meet with Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh in the afternoon. In the evening, State President Tran Duc Luong and his wife will host a banquet in honour of UN General Secretary Kofi Annan and his wife.
On May 25, after a plan to visit Van Mieu Temple (the first Vietnamese university) and Ethnology Museum, Mr Annan will leave Hanoi for Bangkok, ending his official visit to Vietnam.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan - Biography
Kofi Annan of Ghana, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, is the first to be elected from the ranks of UN staff. His first five-year term began on 1 January 1997 and, following his subsequent re-appointment by the UN Member States, he began a second five-year term on January 1, 2002.
The Secretary-General is fluent in English, French and several African languages
Born in Kumasi, Ghana, on 8 April 1938, Mr Annan studied at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi and completed his undergraduate work in economics at Macalester College in the United States in 1961. From 1961 to 1962, he undertook graduate studies in economics at the Institut Universitaire des Dautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva. As a 1971- 1972 Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mr Annan received a Masters of Science degree in management.
The UN Secretary-General was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2001.
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