Also present at the meeting was Vietnam’s National Assembly Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong, who was visiting Australia.

Ms Phong said that the Party and State appreciated the overseas Vietnamese community’s assistance to disadvantaged people in the homeland. She called on foreign and overseas Vietnamese enterprises to increase investment in Vietnam, saying that it will help strengthen national unity and consolidate the friendship between Vietnam and Australia.

Addressing the ceremony, Vietnamese Consul General to Sydney Vu Hong Nam congratulated the Vietnamese community on their great contributions to the prosperity of New South Wales and Australia as well. Overseas Vietnamese’s contributions have helped strengthen the friendship between Vietnam and Australia, he added.

Earlier, some 250 overseas Vietnamese from various localities in Canada joined the Vietnamese Embassy’s staff at a meeting in Ottawa to celebrate Tet.

The get-together also marked the 78^th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (February 3).

Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada Nguyen Duc Hung praised the unity of the Vietnamese community in Canada, which numbers 230,000, and their contributions to developing the bilateral relationship between the two countries.

He also highly valued their charitable activities, that raised more than 100,000 Canadian dollars for victims of Can Tho bridge’s collapse and flood victims in central Vietnam in 2007.