German Consulate General holds reception to mark German Unity Day in Vietnam
Sunday, October 05, 2014, 17:42 GMT+7
The German Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday evening held a ceremony to celebrate the 25th anniversary of German Unity Day (October 3) at Caravelle Hotel in District 1.
Chaired by Hans-Dieter Stell, German Consul General, the event was attended by Le Thanh Liem, Deputy Chairperson of the HCMC People’s Committee, staff members of the German Consulate General, and hundreds of local and international partners.
This was the second time Consul General Stell had hosted such a ceremony after the 2013 reception.
The ceremony was organized to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall, which was triggered by the peaceful opposition of 18 million people in The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1989, according to the German Consulate General.
The collapse of the wall, which was erected over four decades ago, also brought an end to the Cold War and marked the unification of Germany, the consulate said.
The ceremony was also meant to celebrate the long-lasting partnership between Germany and Vietnam, which was officially established in 2011, based on some hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese who are fluent in German.
The two countries posted US$8.8 billion in bilateral trade revenue last year, up 18 percent compared to 2012.
Early last month, the European Union (EU) announced that it will offer 400-million-euro in financial aid to Vietnam in the next six years, of which Germany contributes 100 million euros.
Late last month, Finance Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble, paid a 2-day visit to Vietnam to join meetings on German-Vietnamese business cooperation and the Southeast Asian country’s investment environment and policies.
The meetings were organized to prep for the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Germany and Vietnam next year. The two countries forged their relationship in September 1975.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will visit Germany later this month to participate in formal talks on a variety of issues of mutual concerns, especially the preparation for the important diplomatic tie commemoration in 2015.
Vietnam will be the host country of the 14th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business, with its theme centered on “Understanding Trends and Perspectives,” next month.
It will focus on industries and trends of the future, where cooperation between businesses in Germany and the Asia-Pacific region can thrive.
During the two-day conference, some 750 participants will have many opportunities to speak, listen, network, and contemplate concepts and solutions for a sustainable future.
The event, organized biannually in Asia since 1986, has evolved into the largest German networking occasion in the region, attracting political as well as business leaders.
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“’United in Diversity’ is the slogan for this year’s German Unity Day. The slogan is an expression of our commitment to an open-minded and tolerant Germany that has learned the lessons of the dark chapters of the 20th century and sees our cultural and religious diversity as an enrichment of our society. At the same time, it is an expression of our commitment to a Europe whose strengths lie in the ability to find compromise among diverse neighbors. Twenty-five years of German unity are a cause for celebration. A quarter of a century after the end of the Cold War, this anniversary also encourages us to stand up against a new division of our continent with all our might. A mentality informed by spheres of influence had disastrous consequences for our continent in the 20th century. Instead, we should focus today on the things vouchsafed to us by the historic watershed that was 3 October 1990: partnership, trust and the ability to see our diversity, within and beyond our borders, not as a threat, but as a force for good.” (Message from Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the occasion of the Day of German Unity, October 3, 2014) |
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