The 215th Session of the Executive Board of the UNESCO is taking place from October 5-19, featuring the participation of 58 member countries.
This is the second meeting of the Executive Board in this year, aiming to reviewing its operation and budget expenditures for the six-month implementation of the Programme and Budget during the 2022-2023 period on the fields of education, culture, science, information and communications, global priorities and UNESCO priority groups.
Speaking at the plenary session, Assistant to the Foreign Minister Le Thi Thu Hang, who is also head of the Vietnamese delegation, shared her assessment of the current world situation while emphasising the importance, role and positive contributions of UNESCO in responding and solving global problems. She also stressed the recent successful organisation of The Transforming Education Summit in New York and the World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development (MONDIALCULT) 2022 in Mexico in September 2022.
Hang also affirmed that Vietnam has always actively worked with other members of the UNESCO in implementing the organisation’s activities in the areas of its competence. Typically, Vietnam has successfully marked the 50th anniversary of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage towards working with the international community to issue messages on policies related to the protection of heritages in association with sustainable economic and social development. In addition, the country organised the international conference on “Science, Ethics and Human Development” in Binh Dinh province in response to the International Year of Basic Science for Sustainable Development 2022. An international conference on volcanoes will also be held at the Dak Nong Global Geopark on November 24-26 and a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage will take place in 2023 in Vietnam.
* On the occasion, head of Vietnamese delegation Le Thi Thu Hang worked with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Deputy Director-General Xing Qu and Assistant Director-General for External Relations of UNESCO Edouard Firmin Matoko to discuss the enhancement of the coordination in specialising the Memorandum of Understanding between Vietnam and UNESCO for the 2021-2025 period and measures to further deepen the cooperation in the near future.
UNESCO leaders highly appreciated Vietnam's contributions in recent years and gave sincere thanks to Vietnam for its organisation of the first official visit by the UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay as well as the great attention from senior Vietnamese leaders to the cooperation between the country and UNESCO in general and to the first visit by the UNESCO top leader in particular. The two sides agreed to carry out specific and effective activities in Vietnam as well as promote UNESCO's initiatives and Vietnam's proposals towards the goal of raising bilateral relations to a new height.
On the occasion, Hang had a sideline meeting with the Chairperson of the Executive Board of the UNESCO Tamarac Rastovac and a number of heads of delegations from other countries to discuss bilateral cooperation, issues of mutual concern and the coordination in the implementation of the meeting’s agenda.
The 215th Session of the Executive Board of the UNESCO will last until October 19 and is expected to approve many important decisions such as measures to promote UNESCO's leading role in the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4, the comprehensive strategy on social change management during 2022-2029 period, the concretisation of the ethical recommendations in artificial intelligence, and the international framework on open science.
