Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung delivered the request at the 2^nd working session of the 7^th National Congress of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) in Hanoi on September 29. Head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Mass Mobilisation Ha Thi Khiet also attended the event. 

The VFF and its member organisations should mobilise people from all walks of life, intellectuals, ethnic groups, religious followers and overseas Vietnamese to join hands with the entire Party, people and army to fulfill the Resolution of the 10^th Party National Congress and the country’s socio-economic development programme set for the 2006-2010 period, he said. 

The deputy PM also called on the VFF to encourage the people to take an active part in socio-economic development, hunger elimination, poverty reduction, maintaining political security and social order, and combating corruption, wastefulness and other negative phenomena. 

He told the participants that in the years to come, the country will focus on branching out into new businesses and economic sectors in an effort to create more jobs and improve the quality of Vietnamese commodities for domestic consumption export with the aim of becoming an industrialised nation by 2020. 

The deputy PM expressed his hope that the VFF’s congress will contribute to the successful implementation of the country’s socio-economic, national defence and security tasks in the coming time. 

Also, at the VFF 7^th national congress on September 29, Huynh Dam, the incumbent chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) was nominated through consultation as head of the VFF central committee for the second term.

The newly-appointed central committee has 355 members, 35 members more than the last term.  

Of the new members, 203 are prominent individuals from all social sections representing a variety of economic sectors, ethnic groups, religious groups, intellectual circles and overseas Vietnamese, up 8 percent compared to the body elected at the 6^th national congress.

More than 50% of the newly-appointed central committee (180) are non-Party members, 20.2 percent (72) are female, 26.2 percent (93) are from ethnic minorities and 16.6 percent (59) are religious leaders and authorities.

Earlier, the Presidium of the VFF Central Committee briefed the participants on the latest developments of the ninth tropical storm to visit the country this season, and called on people in vulnerable zones to deal with one another in a spirit of compassion and mutual support, and cooperate with social forces to minimise storm damage.

They requested that the aid boards of the VFF committees at all levels cooperate with local authorities and social forces in conducting relief activities and in helping the affected people quickly restore production and gradually stabilise their lives.