Conferring the State’s Friendship Medal on Minister- Counselor in charge of Development Cooperation of Belgium Embassy

Present at the ceremony, from VWU were Mme. Ha Thi Khiet, member of the Central Party Committee, President of Vietnam Women’s Union and Chairwoman of the National Committee for the Advancement of Women in Vietnam, Mme. Truong Thi Khue, Standing Vice president of VWU and representatives of different Depts. of the central VWU. From the Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium were Mr. Philippe Jottard, Ambassador Extraordinaire; Mr. Andre Gielen, Consular; Mr. Marcus Leroy, minister-counselor, his wife and other officials and staff from the Embassy.

On behalf of the Presidium of the Vietnam Women’s Union, Mme. Truong Thi Khue, in her speech, expressed her most sincere appreciation for the important contributions made by Marcus Leroy for the development of Vietnam in general and the advancement of the Vietnamese women in particular.

As a representative of the Belgium Government’s developmental cooperation in Vietnam, Mr. Marcus Leroy has actively mobilized policy and financial support from the Belgium Government for projects in many areas such as health, education and poverty alleviation, including the project “Capacity improvement in managing credit and saving projects for rural poor women” (Vietnam-Belgium Credit Project, Phrase II). This large scale project was implemented in 17 provinces by the Vietnam Women’s Union, with a total budget for phrase II of 4.8 million EURO, of which more than 3.7 million EURO was contributed by Belgium,

As Mr. Marcus Leroy is ending his mission in Vietnam, to acknowledge his contributions to the development of the country and the advancement of women in Vietnam, the central V WU did propose to and received approval from the Government o­n awarding the “Friendship Medal” to Mr. Marcus Leroy.