(VOVworld) – Vietnam is joining 57 other members of the UNESCO executive board to select candidates for the position of UNESCO Director General and to work on a budget plan for the next term. They are gathering in Paris for the last session in 2013 of the UNESCO executive board, and the last meeting Vietnam will attend during its 4-year membership on the board.

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Thanh Son delivers his speech at the meeting. (Photo: nhandan.com.vn)

Deputy Foreign Minister and Vietnam’s representative to the UNESCO executive board Nguyen Thanh Son said Vietnam supports UNESCO reforms, initiated by incumbent Director General Irina Bokova, which will require time to prove their effectiveness. During talks with Bokova, Vietnam received applause of UNESCO leaders for its contributions. Deputy Foreign Minister Son said: "According to the Director General, Vietnam deserves the applause for a number of recognized tangible and intangible cultural heritages. She spoke highly of the recent Quang Nam festival. Bokova emphasized Vietnam’s role in ASEAN, saying that with a great number of globally realized cultural heritages, Vietnam is fit to be an ASEAN pillar. She expressed her hope that once the ASEAN community is built in 2015, Vietnam will act as a key member in ASEAN connections, particularly in term of cultural heritages. I informed her that Vietnam’s Prime Minister has approved the Vietnam-ASEAN Heritage Festival, to be held for the first time at the end of this year, to link Vietnam closer to other bloc members toward building an ASEAN community. She highly appreciated the idea and, together with the UNESCO executive board, acknowledged Vietnam’s contributions to the organization’s activities, which will be honored at their upcoming General Assembly meeting.

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Thanh Son and incumbent UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova. (Photo: nhandan.com.vn)

After concluding its term on the UNESCO executive board, Vietnam will register to join in UNESCO agencies. At this session, Vietnam proposed that the executive board adopt an ASEAN-UNESCO Framework for Cooperation, an important legal basis for strengthening ties between UNESCO and ASEAN and each individual ASEAN members.