Overseas Vietnamese continue to support COVID-19 fight at home

The State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a ceremony on June 7 to receive US$4,350 from Dr Phan Bich Thien, a Vietnamese Hungarian, to support COVID-19 prevention and control activities in Vietnam.

Thien’s mother and sister handed over the money to the committee on her behalf. She is also Vice President of the Vietnamese Association in Hungary.

At the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, Pham Quang Hieu, said he highly values Thien’s assistance for Vietnam’s COVID-19 fight.

Since the pandemic first broke out in the country, he went on, Vietnamese people from all around the world have donated cash and goods in a show of mutual support.

Responding to a call from the Party, State, and the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee, overseas Vietnamese have contributed to Vietnam’s COVID-19 vaccine fund.

Along with receiving support from overseas Vietnamese, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has proposed policies and directly organised activities to support and raise funds for assisting Vietnamese communities abroad to overcome the difficulties posed by the pandemic.

Relevant agencies have coordinated to arrange 468 flights to safely repatriate 113,000 Vietnamese from more than 59 countries and territories while sending more than 830,000 face masks and medical supplies and necessities to Vietnamese people in over 20 pandemic-hit localities, he noted.

The ministry has also received food and medical supplies from many agencies, localities, and enterprises for the Vietnamese community in Cambodia, which reflects the tradition of solidarity and mutual support among Vietnamese people and the attention of the Party and State to Vietnamese communities abroad in a spirit of not leaving anyone behind.

According to the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, on May 31, Steve Bui, Chairman of a Japan-based financial consultation and investment group and Chairman of the Steve Bui & Friends Foundation, presented nearly 1,000 bottles of hand sanitiser and 9,000 N5 facemasks worth nearly VND300 million to medical staff in the two COVID-19 hotspots of Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces.

On June 1, representatives from the Vietnam-Korea Businessmen & Investment Association (VKBIA) and the Saigon Share charity group visited and presented medical supplies to frontline forces in the COVID-19 fight in HCM City’s Go Vap district.

The Overseas Vietnamese Association in Macau (China) also handed over VND131 millionto the VFF Central Committee to support pandemic prevention and control activities.