We, the Women Leaders’ Network, from APEC economies came together for the sixth time in Beijing, China on August 22-24, 2001, to reaffirm our commitment and our efforts to contribute to the economic development, cooperation and prosperity of the APEC region, and to strategize to meet challenges in the new century.

The 1999 WLN Meeting contributed to the drafting of policy recommendations for presentation to APEC Trade Ministers. This was the first time the WLN recommendations were made directly to APEC Ministers for Trade.

The WLN 2000 Declaration and Recommendations, recalls the "1996 Manila WLN Call to Action; WLN Declarations of 1997 Ottawa-Hull; 1998 Kuala Lumpur and 1999 Wellington; and Recommendations from the Ministerial Meeting on Women in Economic Development and Cooperation in Manila in 1998.

The 1998 WLN Meeting Declaration and Recommendations reaffirms the "commitment to work together [with APEC] in partnership to meet current challenges, as well as challenges in the new millennium to contribute towards achieving sustainability in our regional economic recovery, prosperity and development" (WLN 1 998).

With the theme “Towards a Dynamic Community – for Sustainable Development and Prosperity” in the year APEC 2006, it is estimated 100 events will be organized in Vietnam, of which The APEC 11th Women Leaders’ network Meeting will be hosted by Vietnam Women Union at the International Conference Center – Hanoi, from September 19 to 22, 2006.

The European Commission (EC)’s decision to slap primary anti-dumping duties of 4.2 percent on leather shoes imported from Vietnam has affected half a million leather shoe workers (most of whom being women) and a high number of workers involved in supporting sectors.

From: Ha Thi Khiet

With a great passion for Vietnam, Madam Kathleen Huff gave up her position as Head of the Psychology Department at Arkansas University, America in 1998. Instead she took up work at World Concern, a non-government organization in Seatle (America), who needed an expert for their job-generation project for disabled youths in Da Nang, Quang Nam and Hai Duong, Vietnam.

“As if Uncle Ho was here on the Victory Day” – the exciting rhythms of this song often remind me of the wonderful moments right after the liberation of the South on 30th April 1975.

A meeting on anti - trafficking was jointly held by the Ministry of Public Security and the Cambodian Ministry of the Internal Affairs at Ho Chi Minh City.

As relations between Lao and Vietnam grow, Laotian learners have spent time in Vietnam during the rice harvest period to observe the speed at which rice plants grow each day.

The embroidery picture was a present of Uncle Ho to the late US colonel Stephen L.Nordlinger 60 years ago. It has been kept by his family, up to three generations, as a precious thing in the living room.

Manila, Philipines
October 2-4, 1996

In the Declaration and Recommendations of the Women Leaders' Network at its second meeting in 1997, the WLN reaffirmed the 1996 Manila Call to Action, promoted its continued and consistent implementation throughout APEC processes and structures, and reemphasized the vital contribution of women to APEC economies.

From 1925 to 1939, there were around 60 Vietnamese students who studied at the Communist Synthetic University, rendering for oriental laborers (KUTV), Institute for Peoples and Colonies belonging to KUTV (NIINKP) and Lenin International School.

After the Chosun Daily made public the articles about Vietnamese brides on April 21 that led to reactions by Vietnamese readers, many Korean newspapers reported on a demonstration of a group of Korean citizens and Vietnamese people in front of the office of the Chosun Daily, and Vietnamese public opinion about the articles

On the sideline of the 39th session of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, Minister of Justice Uong Chu Luu talked with the press about the Chosun Daily case, from the legal aspect related to marriage with foreigners.

This was the affirmation made at the meeting between Mme. Ha Thi Khiet, President of Vietnam Women's Union (VWU), and Mr. Kim Euki, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Vietnam, on May 4, 2006 at the VWU's central office regarding the article "Vietnamese Young Women Coming to Korea – A Land of Hopes" posted by the Chosun Daily Newspaper on April 21, 2006.

A Republic of Korean diplomat has just apologized to Vietnamese women after protests at home slammed a local newspaper as “cold and insensitive” in portraying the women as merely dying to marry a Korean man.

The European Union is a crucial partner, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said after he received the visiting Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, in Hanoi on April 21.

Labor unions should help women get jobs, a Vietnamese labor official said at a conference in Hanoi Tuesday on the role of the unions in preventing trafficking of women and children.

The Republic of Korea (ROK) National Assembly approved the nomination of Han Myung-sook as the country's first female prime minister on Wednesday afternoon.

Welcome 11th APEC Women Leader’s Network Meeting in Hanoi

The Russian Government on April 18 presented Vietnam with a number of documents on the relations between the former Soviet Union and Vietnam.

Labor unions should help women get jobs, a Vietnamese labor official said at a conference in Hanoi Tuesday on the role of the unions in preventing trafficking of women and children.

The Viet Nam-US Society has expressed its condolences over the death of William Coffin, a well-known peace activist and leader of the Anti-Vietnam war movement in the US during the 1960s and '70s.

A woman of small business has made a contribution to founding the overseas Vietnamese Group and opening a Vietnamese school in Cambodia. When getting older, she opened a Vietnamese newspaper stall in Phnom Penh and became a sponsor for Vietnamese misleading girls.

Poverty alleviation is Vietnam's overriding concern and the Government's approach to this issue has been praiseworthy, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) has said in a report on March 30 of the results of its economic and social survey of Asia and the Pacific in 2006.

The Associated Press (AP) on April 2 carried an article saying that the poignant wartime diaries of a Vietnamese military surgeon, named Dang Thuy Tram, have reconciled the US and Viet Nam after a US intelligence officer saved them from being burned.

In the 1950s, there were only few Vietnamese language classes in America. Since then, several Vietnamese Studies Departments have been established at famous US universities and have educated many scholars in Vietnamese studies. In recent years, many of these scholars have visited Vietnam on study tours.

Visitors to the first international photo festival opened in Sarcelles city, 20 km east of Paris, France, on April 8, signed their names into a petition, expressing their support to Vietnamese Agent Orange/dioxin victims in the lawsuit against US chemical producers.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has decided to provide Vietnam with US $15 million to help in contagious disease control.

The Roever Educational Programme of the US, REAP International, has presented 40 scholarships, each worth 600,000 VND, to poor students in southern Binh Thuan, Ben Tre, Dong Nai and Tra Vinh provinces.

A get-together was held in Hanoi on April 7 to celebrate the traditional New Year festival of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar, drawing a crowd of diplomatic corps, officials and students of these nationalities.

The Vietnamese State and Government always helps facilitate the overseas Vietnamese community in Laos in conformity with Lao legal regulations.

Vietnam's water puppetry has attracted almost 1,000 French children to each show presented at the on-going Imagine Festival in Paris, said the festival's organising board.

The US plans to donate US$3.3 million to support the continuation of mine removal in Vietnam in fiscal year 2006, its embassy in Hanoi said in a press release on Tuesday.

Shin Sakurai, former Chairman of the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD), spoke highly of Viet Nam's achievements in population affairs, hunger elimination and poverty reduction at a seminar in Ha Noi on April 5.

Brunei's Crown Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah and his wife Wednesday donated US$50,000 to the Vietnam Association for Agent Orange Victims to help its poor members.

Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Bill Tweddell yesterday waved a flag to start a race called ChallengeMD! with the participation of 32 Australian riders to raise money to help fight Muscular Dystrophy (MD) and raise awareness of MD.

Australian artist Nerine Martini opened an exhibition in Hanoi Friday displaying her sculpture based on a traditional boat from the central Vietnamese town of Hoi An.

Vietnamese, Thai and Lao women shared experiences in ensuring gender equality and improving women's roles in society.

Twelve expat Vietnamese youngsters arrived in Vietnam Monday sponsored by the US Catalyst Foundation for a 10-day trip to help local underprivileged kids and discover their home country in the process.

Applied health students from Charles Sturt University in Australia’s New South Wales state will head to Vietnam next week to work with children with disabilities in a Ho Chi Minh City orphanage.

In spite of being made 35 years ago and shown in many countries, the film “Winter soldier” will be shown in American cinemas since 16 January 2006 only.

Why does it take 35 years?

On the occasion of the New Lunar Year and in preparation for the “Binh Tuat” Tet (Year of Golden Dog), in the evening of January 21st, the Vietnamese Embassy to the US held a cultural exchange including food and film festivals.

Victims of Agent Orange (AO) and other toxic chemicals demanded US chemical companies pay compensation in an international appeal released at the end of a two-day conference on the effects of AO/dioxin in Ha Noi.

All American veterans who are expected to attend an international conference on Agent Orange (AO) and its effects on people to be held in Ha Noi on March 28-29, said they will strive for justice for AO victims in Viet Nam.

A generation after the Vietnam War, a US military veteran whose team once sprayed Agent Orange on the country came face to face with disabled children whose suffering is blamed on the defoliant.

Governments, international and national organizations, and non-government organizations are urged to provide material and spiritual support for victims of Agent Orange/dioxin in Viet Nam.