The Vietnamese ambassador (right) with other senior officials of the embassy in Doha.
A large number of people from different walks of life attended the three-day Asean festival at Katara - the Cultural Village, which concluded yesterday.
The first edition of the festival was held at the Katara esplanade and saw the participation of the embassies of Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and Singapore. Ambassadors of the participating countries attended the festivities along with the envoys of other nations, such as Turkey, Poland, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Attendees, who came from different countries, expressed pleasure and joy at participating in the event. They enjoyed the cultural shows, traditional music, costumes and cuisine presented at the festival, representing the seven Asean countries.
Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim al-Sulaiti, general manager of Katara, stressed that the festival with its various events and activities reflected the cultures of the participating countries. Besides, it is a key role of Katara to showcase various world cultures and help bridge differences between various peoples.
Katara has already hosted African and Ecuadorian festivals, in addition to Palestinian, Moroccan and Turkish weeks, Ethiopian day and the Indian festival. Further, Katara has hosted various cultural events from Iran, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Scotland and Argentina.
“The Asean festival gives the participating countries an important opportunity to enhance their friendly relations and further strengthen the already good relations with Qatar,” said Vietnamese ambassador Nguyen Hoang.
However, he noted that while Vietnam receives a large number of tourists from Europe, some Asian countries, Russia and the US, corresponding figures from the Middle East, including Qatar, are limited. “Vietnam has great tourism potential and investment in this sector is really promising. So, we consider such a festival to be an excellent platform to introduce our country to Qataris and expatriates from different parts of the world,” he pointed out.
Nguyen said Vietnam’s embassy in Doha participated in the festival with three stalls: one for handicrafts, another for tourist information and the third for general information on his country.
