Vietnamese expats in Singapore gather to celebrate Tet
About 1,000 Vietnamese expatriates and students in Singapore attended a gathering on January 14 to celebrate the approaching Lunar New Year.
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Together they listened to musical performances and enjoyed Vietnamese dishes traditionally made for the lunar New Year Festival (Tet).
Vietnamese Ambassador to Singapore Nguyen Tien Minh hailed the Vietnamese community in Singapore for their friendship and cultural activities in 2016. He particularly highlighted the community’s campaign to raise donations to build outdoor exercise facilities for soldiers in Vietnam’s Truong Sa archipelago.
Vietnam and Singapore recorded annual trade revenue of SGD20 billion (US$14.3 billion). Singapore was ranked third among 114 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, with 1,772 valid projects worth approximately US$38 billion.
The same day, Ambassador to Algeria and Senegal Pham Quoc Tru visited several Vietnamese families living in Senegal’s capital city Dakar and presented them with New Year gifts.
He also attended a get-together with 40 representatives of the Vietnamese community in the city.
The ambassador extended his Tet greetings to the expatriates, stressing that overseas Vietnamese are an indispensable part of Vietnam and the Government always creates the best conditions for them to do business and social activities back home.
Senegal is home to several thousands of Senegalese of Vietnamese origin, most of them are of the second, third and fourth generations and unable to speak the mother tongue. Only a few of the first-generation Vietnamese in Senegal are alive and they are now in their nineties.