Vietnam gets ready for big day
By Judy Harry,WNS Indo-China Correspondent
HANOI - Hanoi's street cleaners are working overtime. Elaborate floral displays have been erected along pavements and traffic islands, and huge banners are everywhere - vastly outnumbering the city's communist slogans. The Vietnamese capital is playing host to the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) annual meeting, where many of the world's leaders - including US President George Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao - are to meet.
Vietnam's government sees it as a chance to showcase the country's fast-growing economy, and recent acceptance as a member of the World Trade Organization. "Apec is the most important political and diplomatic event in Vietnam this year," said government spokesman Le Dung, standing in the city's newly-built $270m convention centre. "This is our chance to show other countries what we can do," Mr Le added. It is not just the government that is excited by the thought of a huge international meeting in Hanoi.
Many locals have been looking forward to the conference too. "I'm really happy that lots of important leaders are coming to Hanoi - especially George Bush," said waitress Nguyen Linh Chi, showing off her Apec T-shirt with pride. Even some Vietnam War veterans are excited about the US president's visit. "I don't earn much money and my life is quite miserable now. Maybe Mr Bush can help," said motorcycle taxi driver Do Kieu Tuan, who 30 years ago was one of the soldiers who helped drive the Americans out of Saigon.
posted by wnsworld @ 6:41 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home