Party leader launches tree planting festival in Hanoi
Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong on February 3 launched the annual tree planting festival in Hanoi’s outlying district of Ba Vi.
The event marks the 84th anniversary of the Communist Party of Vietnam and 45 years since late President Ho Chi Minh planted a banyan tree on Dong Vang hill, Vat Lai commune to celebrate the first day of the Year of the Rooster 1969.
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The tree, which represented the beginning of a national planting campaign, has now become a cultural relic site.
Talking with local residents, Party chief Trong noted his pleasure that the district Party Committee and locals have followed President Ho Chi Minh’s appeal for forestation, which has been developed into an annual mass campaign.
As the country is on a path towards industrialisation and modernisation led by Hanoi, the tending, protection and planting of trees are crucial, he said.
Ba Vi district’s acreage of forest land now accounts for 25% of its total area and some 40% of the city’s total forest area.