Speaking at the launching of this year’s “Tree Planting Festival”, Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen The Thao said that on the occasion of the New Year of the Rat 51 years ago, Uncle Ho launched the first-ever “Tree Planting Festival” and called on people from all walks of life across the country to plant trees and afforest.

Since then, the “Tree Planting Festival” has become a traditional cultural feature of the Vietnamese people when spring comes, the mayor said.

In 2010 alone, Hanoi grew 1.5 million trees and more than 200 hectares of forest, took care and protected over 9,000 hectares of protective forest.

Many businesses and local residents worked together to plant trees along with upgrading lakes and parks in a move to make the capital city more green, clean and beautiful, Thao added.