(TITC) - On 20th June 2023, Ms. Trinh Thi Thuy, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MOCST) had a meeting with Mr. Rao Quan, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism of China on strengthening coordination to promote cooperation, culture - tourism exchange.

MOCST’s Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy speaking at the meeting (Photo: TITC)

MOCST’s Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy stated, Vietnam always attaches importance to culturel and tourism cooperation with China. Through cultural diplomacy and people-to-people exchanges, the two sides have achieved many impressive results in the cooperation process.

Since 1992, the two Governments signed an Agreement on Cultural Cooperation and based on the actual situation, the two sides periodically signed the Agreement on Culture and Tourism as well as a number of other cooperation documents, indicated, Ms. Trinh Thi Thuy. Particularly, in October 2022, on the occasion of the official visit to China of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam together with the Minister of Culture and Tourism of China signed the “Plan for Culture and Tourism Cooperation for the period of 2023-2027”, providing fiscal space to enhance culture and tourism cooperation between the two countries.

Since 2018, the organisation of “Annual meeting at the leadership level of the Ministry” has played an important role in promoting the culture and tourism cooperation between the two countries.

In recent times, Vietnam and China are discussing the establishment of a Vietnamese Cultural Center in Beijing. According to MOCST’s Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy, cooperation activities taking place between the two countries have built culture and tourism cooperation between the two sides successfully and sustainably, worthy of the comprehensive strategic cooperation partnership between Vietnam and China.

Overview of the meeting (Photo: TITC)

Regarding the field of tourism, MOCST’s Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy noted the efforts of both countries to restore tourism post the Covid-19. China is always the leading source market of Vietnam tourism, accounting for a high proportion of the total number of international visitors to Vietnam, reaching 5.8 million visitor arrivals in 2019 – the period before the pandemic outbreak. Vietnam is also one of the five largest foreign markets sending tourists to China for many years. In 2019, the number of Vietnamese visitors to China reached 7.9 million arrivals. In the first 5 months of 2023, Chinese visitors to Vietnam reached nearly 400,000 arrivals. The number of tourists travelling between the two countries is increasing as attractive tourism products are continuously launched.

MOCST’s Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy and leaders of units under MOCST (Photo: TITC)

  MOCST’s Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy desires to learn development experience from China; to organise meeting between the two countries to implement effectively the Culture and tourism cooperation plan for the period of 2023 - 2027. In which, attentively promoting cooperation activities in the fields of cultural development, cultural industry and tourism between the two countries.

MOCST’s Deputy Minister Trinh Thi Thuy further suggested a number of solutions such as to develop the potential for culture and tourism development of each country based on the good bilateral and multilateral cooperation platform; the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China will support Vietnam in organising cultural and tourism promotion activities in China,...

Additionally, to ensure safety and encourage citizens of the two countries to travel to each other; strengthen coordination in the management of tourism service quality at the destinations of each country in order to meet the demands of tourists; strengthen the improvement of tourism infrastructure, develop tourism products suitable to the tastes of tourists of each side. She hopes China considers the possibility of supporting training human resources in the tourism industry for Vietnam, promoting the exchange of tourism management experiences.

Mr. Rao Quan, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism of China and the delegation (Photo: TITC)

Mr. Rao Quan, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism of China hopes that the two sides will have many cooperation activities to effectively implement the signed documents. China will support Vietnam in organising culture and tourism events in China, affirmed Mr. Rao Quan; Vietnam will support events to introduce and promote the culture and tourism of China, especially the events of the Chinese Cultural Center in Ha Noi.

Delegation of Culture and Tourism of China (Photo: TITC)

Mr. Rao Quan showed his support towards the idea of establishing the Vietnam Cultural Center in Beijing. This event will be an important milestone in the cultural cooperation between the two countries, helping the Chinese people to understand and love Vietnamese culture better.

For visitors entering via border gates, China will conduct research on policies to facilitate travel for Vietnamese visitors, said Vice Minister Rao Quan. Leaders of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China hoped that the state management agencies and travel agencies of the two sides should meet to discuss additional solutions and exchange information to increase the number of visitors. It is necessary to enhance the organisation of activities to promote Vietnam - China culture and tourism to attract people to travel. China is ready to support Vietnam in training human resources to meet the development of the tourism industry.

Leaders of both sides taking souvenir photo (Photo: TITC)

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