Tokyo (VNA)ꦜ – The third Vietnam Festival in Sapporo – a cultural exchange between Vietnam and Japan was opened on Sapporo city, Japan’s Hokkaido prefecture on August 10.

During the two-day festival, the northeastern province of Quang Ninh, as assigned by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, runs two exhibition booths and sends a group of artists to perform art programmes, aiming to introduce and promote the image of the nature, culture, people, investment environment of Quang Ninh province in particular and Vietnam in general. Attending the opening ceremony, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son said that this year's festival is more meaningful as it is the first large-scale cultural exchange event between Hokkaido and Vietnam after the two countries upgraded their relationship framework to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the World in 2023 – the year that marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations. After three editions, the Vietnam Festival in Sapporo has become a popular cultural exchange event with rich and diverse content, awaited by the community of about 12,000 Vietnamese living, studying and working in Hokkaido. On this occasion, Son thanked Hokkaido Governor Suzuki Naomichi for supporting the organisation of the festival and the friendship between Hokkaido and Vietnam. He also thanked Takebe Tsutomu, Special Advisor to the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentary Alliance, honourable head of the festival organising board and the festival's founder, for his efforts to promote the relationship between Hokkaido prefecture and Quang Ninh province. Mitsuhashi Tsuyoshi, Deputy Governor of Hokkaido, affirmed that Hokkaido wishes to strengthen cooperation with Vietnamese localities, increase the reception of Vietnamese high-quality workers and technical interns to work in the province. He said the province also wants to promote cooperation with Vietnam in human resources training. Speaking highly of the contribution of the Vietnamese community - the largest foreign community in Hokkaido, to the local socio-economic development, the Deputy Governor said he hopes more Vietnamese people will come to work in Hokkaido and pledged to continue supporting the Vietnamese community. The same day, FM Son attended a seminar on cooperation prospects between universities in Vietnam and Japan in the new period. Representatives from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ho Chi Minh City, Quang Ninh province, Vietnam - Japan University, Ha Long University, and Japan’s universities including Ashikawa City University, Japanese Red Cross Hokkaido College of Nursing, Future University Hakodate, Kitami Institute of Technology and Hokkaido Academy joined the semiar. They introduced their universities, cooperation programmes and shared measures to promote the two countries’ cooperation in human resources development in the coming time. Son emphasised that cooperation in human resources training, especially high-quality human resources, has been initiated early by the two countries. It is one of the three key contents in the new generation of official development assistance (ODA) cooperation between the two countries. Currently, more than 43,000 Vietnamese students are studying in Japan, which is an important force for the socio-economic development of the two countries and helps strengthen the affection and mutual understanding between the people of the two countries, he said./.