Last Day in Vietnam

Today, the state visit to Vietnam ended with a visit to Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon. In the morning the Grand Duke opened an economy and finance seminar held by the Ministry of Economy. He was also scheduled to visit the Ben Thanh Market. Around noon he definetely visited the Can Gio Mangrove Forest, a part of UNESCO's 'Man and the Biosphere Programme', as you can see on the pictures below.

In the morning, he met with the press to talk about his impressions of Vietnam. Grand Duke Henri had already visited Vietnam about twenty years ago when he was still Hereditary Grand Duke. Thus, he commented on the many changes most visible when looking at the street scene. While twenty years ago, the people largely used bicycles, cars are all around now. The Grand Duke said that he is very impressed by the attitude of the Vietnamese people who look forward to the future in a very positive way. He added that he very much appreciated the willingness of the Vietnamese government concerning an open dialogue about human rights.

Pictures of the day in the mangrove forest can be found at Tageblatt, Wort has another picture. The official website of the government has a small picture of the opening speech of the Grand Duke at the seminar, as does the updated picture gallery of the cour. RTL is also constantly updating their photo gallery of the state visit, they also have a video of the last day in Vietnam.


Sources: Wort, gouvernement.lu