Party General Secretary and State President To Lam had a meeting with the Vietnamese community in France on October 5 (local time), as part of the leader's trip to attend the 19th Francophonie Summit and pay an official visit to France.

Welcoming the top leader, Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang said that the Vietnamese community in France currently has more than 300,000 members, including about 50,000 intellectuals and thousands of entrepreneurs. The community has shown good integration, preserving cultural identity and national traditions and heading to the homeland, he said.

Vuong Huu Nhan, Chairman of the Vietnamese Association in France, said the Vietnamese community is always attached to and heads towards the homeland, caring about compatriots at home and always supporting an independent and sovereign Vietnam.

Nguyen Hai Nam, Chairman of the Association of Vietnamese Business in France (ABVietFrance), said that the association has held many activities to promote investment and trade between France, European countries and Vietnam. Nam gave a number of recommendations on facilitating the resuming of and applying for the Vietnamese nationality, allowing Vietnamese people residing abroad to vote in and run for National Assembly elections.

On behalf of the Association of Vietnamese Youth and Students in France, Nguyen Thu Van expressed her wish for financial support for community movements from the State budget or from domestic enterprises.

She suggested organising a forum exclusively for Vietnamese youth abroad, and showed her hope that relevant ministries and sectors at home will support the association in organising a Science and Technology Forum for young intellectuals and young businesses in France.

General Secretary and President Lam said that during his talks with French leaders, he asked France to continue to pay attention and create favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in France to live, study and work stably and integrate with the host society, and contribute to the development of France and the relationship between the two countries.

The leader underlined that the Party and State always value the contributions by generations of overseas Vietnamese in France and the Association of Vietnamese in France to the country. He welcomed their core and active role in Europe in uniting, gathering, and supporting the community, preserving the Vietnamese language and national cultural identity.

He affirmed the Party and State's great attention to the Vietnamese community abroad in general and France in particular, considering the community as an inseparable and an important resource of the nation.

He said he hopes that the Vietnamese community in France in particular and Europe in general will always promote the spirit of solidarity and national pride, turning towards the homeland, contributing to the development of the country, promoting the good values of the nation, and preserving the Vietnamese language for future generations.

Recognising the community's proposals, he said he will ask authorities at home to take prompt actions to meet the aspirations of the overseas Vietnamese in France in particular and in the world in general.

The leader asked the embassy to continue to show strong performance in community work and citizen protection, supporting the community to settle down, integrate well into the host society, preserve the Vietnamese language and national cultural identity, and act as a bridge between Vietnam and other countries, contributing to the country's development./.