State President Nguyen Minh Triet made the statement at the third national congress of the Vietnam Elderly Association in Hanoi on December 30. The event was attended by nearly 500 delegates coming from different parts of the country.

In his address, the State President said that elderly people currently make great contribution not only to family and society but also to the cause of national construction and defence.  

“Vietnam has entered a new period of development and its prestige has been elevated internationally after it joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and successfully organised the 14^th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting. Vietnam has been acknowledged as a dynamic and potential economy in the region,” said Mr Triet.

However, he pointed to major challenges facing the country ahead, including poor infrastructure and low competitive capacity of products and asked the association to devise an effective programme of action in the new term so as to grasp opportunities and overcome challenges. Accordingly, he urged the association to renew its organisation and operation to attract more members to emulation movements, develop the aggregate strength of national great unity and actively implement the resolutions of the 10^th National Party Congress, national socio-economic development tasks for 2007 and the national programme for the elderly in the 2006-2010 period.

He also asked the association to pay more attention to improving the physical and spiritual life of elderly people while playing to full strength their role and experience in tackling social problems such as bureaucracy and corruption.

The Congress elected its new central committee with Nguyen Tan Trinh as President of the Vietnam Elderly Association.