Mr Dung emphasised that the recognition is of great significance as the capital city is celebrating the Thang Long-Hanoi millennium anniversary from October 1. He also expressed thanks for Bokova for her speech at the event’s inauguration and reiterated Vietnam’s policy to look for further cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Cooperation (UNESCO).

“During the national construction, Vietnam considers economic development as a central task, culture as the social foundation and education as the nation’s top policy,” said the Government leader.

“Vietnam supports the formation of an ASEAN-UNESCO cooperation framework”, Mr Dung emphasised.

For her part, Bokova congratulated Vietnam for winning the World Cultural Heritage title for the Thang Long Royal Citadel.

UNESCO has always stood by and supported Vietnam in its development cause, pledged the UN development agency’s chief.

Bokova also expressed her impression upon Vietnam’s allocation of over 20 percent of the annual State budget to education. She pledged to work with local ministries and agencies to provide assistance in general and tertiary education as well as advanced technology application in teaching, thus bringing Vietnam to a certain place in the international educational map.

During her stay, Bokova signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cooperation with the Vietnam National UNESCO Committee, focusing on education, social and natural sciences, heritage culture and human resource development.