The Vietnam-Japan Friendship Association should develop relations with new partners as well as consolidating ties with traditional ones, according to a statement by Vu Xuan Hong, President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO), at the association's congress in Hanoi on July 26.

During the 2006-2010 period, the association will continue to strengthen cultural and educational exchanges and promote economic and scientific cooperation between Vietnam and Japan.

In its previous term, the association conducted various humanitarian activities, including cooperating with the Japan-Vietnam Council for Peace and Friendship to help Agent Orange victims, granting scholarships to ethnic minority children in Vietnam, and assisting the Okinawa Friendship Association in building a Japanese-language teaching school in central Hue city.

The association now has chapters in 12 cities and provinces. Each chapter actively co-ordinates with its Japanese partners in the development of cultural and economic cooperation and humanitarian activities.

During the congress, Professor, Academician Vu Tuyen Hoang was re-elected as president of the association.