Minister of State Pieper opens German Year in Viet Nam

Opening concert featuring Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (AA)

On 23 January 2010, in Hanoi, Minister of State Pieper opened the German Year in Viet Nam.

Opening Concert in the Hanoi Opera House

The opening event was a joint concert by the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Choir directed by the German conductor Jonas Alber.

In her opening address Ms Pieper invited the audience to “get to know Germany as a land of ideas”. She hoped that more and more Vietnamese and Germans would talk to each other, and that “more and more will enter into a dialogue which might inspire a joint idea, a joint project”.

During her visit to Hanoi Ms Pieper had talks with Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Cuong and Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan.

Awarding a PASCH plaque to the Dong Da Middle School in Hanoi (AA)

PASCH plaque for the Dong Da Middle School in Hanoi

That afternoon Ms Pieper awarded a PASCH school-partnership plaque to the Dong Da Middle School in Hanoi for introducing German as its second foreign language. Since 2008 the school has taken part in the Federal Foreign Office’s Partner School Initiative (PASCH).

Economic issues were the focus of her subsequent stay in Ho Chi Minh City, where she met representatives of the German business community. At the Vietnamese-German University she talked to students, coordinators and German university representatives. Ms Pieper later visited the new German International School and the Goethe-Institut in Ho Chi Minh City.

With the “German Year in Viet Nam” and the parallel “Vietnamese Year in Germany”, the two countries are celebrating the 35th anniversary of German-Vietnamese diplomatic relations. The German Year’s motto is “City of the Future – Future of the City”, and aims to portray the entire spectrum of bilateral relations. It will include musical, fine arts, dance and theatre projects, gatherings of academic experts, a trade fair and visits by high-level politicians.