Welcoming Mushikiwabo, IDECAF Director Nguyen Ngoc Lan said founded 40 years ago, the institute has been acting as a bridge to bring French cultures and language closer to Ho Chi Minh City’s citizens and introduce Vietnamese culture to the Francophone community and foreign expats in the city.
Through its “French-speaking Job and Internship Space,” IDECAF has played a part in developing French-speaking workforce and connecting French learning students with the network of enterprises from the Francophone countries like France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada in Ho Chi Minh City and southern provinces.
It also serves as an advisory body for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the municipal People’s Committee in diplomacy and cultural policies, she said. The director hoped to receive further support from the OIF in the coming time, for example, enabling IDECAF to join more activities of OIF-operated French-speaking cultural centres around the globe.
The OIF Secretary-General, for her part, highly spoke of the diversity of activities hosted by IDECAF to promote the French language and the Francophone community among local people, particularly the youth.
Mushikiwabo also congratulated IDECAF on its achievements over the past four decades, saying a model like IDECAF must be multiplied in other French-speaking countries. She pledged to provide all possible conditions for IDECAF to heighten its role within the OIF.
On the previous day, the OIF leader attended a Francophone business forum in Ho Chi Minh City and paid a courtesy call to the city’s leaders.
