Vietnam is among the five countries mentioned and the first destination of the international cooperation initiative on community sports and health, said Susanne Gaerte, Senior Manager of Olympism 365 – a strategy by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) aimed at strengthening the role of sport as an important enabler for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Gaerte unveiled the information at a working session with the Sports Authority of Vietnam in Hanoi on November 7. The initiative is carried out by the IOC and PATH, an international, nonprofit global health organisation, to promote Olympism 365. It targets the establishment of national groups comprising healthcare and sports-related entities in at least five countries to jointly implement community programmes involving sports. The goal is to help 1 million people assess opportunities to participate in physical activities and get benefit from them.

At the meeting, Nguyen Thi Chien, deputy head of the authority’s office of sports for all, stated the Vietnamese Party, State and Government pay significant attention to community sport programmes. Many sport activities for the public have been regularly organised, attracting a large number of participants, thereby contributing to raising people’s awareness on physical practices.

Expressing her delight at the attention, Gaerte said she believes it will be a favourable starting point for the implementation of the initiative in Vietnam.

To translate the initiative into reality, she proposed conducting a series of consultations and gathering input from relevant parties in the fields of sports and health, therefore drafting a framework for the action plan.

The two sides also discussed various matters of mutual concerns, including infrastructure, human resources, policies, and collaboration among relevant ministries and sectors, to ensure that the plan meets the criteria of safety, comprehensiveness, and sustainability./.