Longform

Since Vietnam and the Netherlands set up their diplomatic relations on April 9, 1973, the two sides have jointly developed a sound friendship and cooperation across all fields, from politics, economy, and education to defence and security.

Introduced to Vietnam in the mid-nineteenth century, coffee has become one of the country’s main industrial crops. Vietnam is now the world’s largest producer of Robusta and second largest coffee exporter. Last year, its earnings from overseas shipments of the products hit a record high of about 4 billion USD, up 32% annually.

Fifty years ago, on February 26, Vietnam and Australia officially set up diplomatic relations. In the past five decades, bilateral relations have developed rapidly and sustainably, bringing about various benefits to the two countries.

In 2022, Vietnam import and export turnover reached an estimated US$732.5 billion, the highest ever recorded. This is a great effort of ministries and sectors, including the Ministry of Industry and Trade in facilitating the domestic businesses to make effective use of free trade agreements (FTAs) and administrative reform, creating the most favorable conditions for import and export activities.

The art of puppetry has been existed for thousands of years and can be found in many cultures in the world. They belong to major families including string puppet, hand puppets and rod puppets. Water puppet is unique form that can be found only in Vietnam.