UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay speaks at the ceremony (Photo: VNA) 

 The ceremony was held in both virtual and in-person forms, with the attendance of Politburo member and Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan, visiting UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay, along with delegates from Vietnamese ministries, agencies, organisations and foreign agencies and organisations in Viet Nam.

 In his remarks, Standing Deputy PM Minh recalled that the 24^th General Conference of UNESCO in 1987 adopted resolution 24C/18.65 which recommended that members celebrate the 100^th birthday of President Ho Chi Minh. The resolution described Ho Chi Minh as “an outstanding symbol of national affirmation, who devoted his whole life to the national liberation of the Vietnamese people, contributing to the common struggle of peoples for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress.”  

For the Vietnamese nation, President Ho Chi Minh is a genius leader and a hero of national liberation, a great teacher of the Vietnamese revolution, an outstanding diplomat and the inspiration for the confidence in the victory of the struggle for national independence and people’s prosperity, he stressed.

 Minh went on to say that for people in the world, the President is a close and loyal friend, a symbol of the aspiration for peace and the struggle against oppression and inequity, and an emissary of peace, solidarity, friendship, cooperation among nations.

 The UNESCO Director General said a great legacy of President Ho Chi Minh is his vision on education for all people, and in inheriting and developing this legacy, UNESCO is cooperating effectively with Viet Nam in preserving and upholding the value of national cultural identity.

 She re-affirmed that UNESCO will continue to cooperate with Viet Nam in the time ahead.

 On the occasion, a bilingual book on people in the world and President Ho Chi Minh made its debut. 

 Delegates to the ceremony visited a photo and book exhibition on the late President and the Ho Chi Minh relic site at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi.

 The same day, an international seminar on Ho Chi Minh’s legacy with humankind took place in both virtual and in-person forms.

 Vietnamese and foreign scholars and researchers shared the view that the President’s legacy has timeless value and should be spread and passed down generations./.