OVERSEAS VIETNAMESE ASSOCIATION IN MACAO HOLDS LUNCHEON TO CELEBRATE LUNAR NEW YEAR AND INT’L WOMEN’S DAY, ATTENDED BY AROUND 450

Around 450 people attended a luncheon held by The Overseas Vietnamese Association of Macao at the Grand Plaza restaurant on Sunday, in celebration of this year’s Lunar New Year and International Women’s Day.

Apart from Macau’s Vietnamese community, the event was also attended by several other community leaders and officials like legislators Jose Maria Pereira Coutinho and Lei Leong Wong, Portuguese community leader Rita Santos, representatives of the France Macau Chamber of Commerce (FMCC), Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Deputy Director Cheng Wai Tong, General Union of Neighbourhood Associations of Macau (UGAMM) Director-General Chan Ka Leong, as well as consular officials from Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and the Philippines.

Consul Nguyen Tuan Anh from the Vietnamese Consulate-General in Hong Kong also attended the luncheon that also featured some singing and dance performances.

He said during the event that The Overseas Vietnamese Association of Macao had done very well particularly in the past few years, encouraging the association to continue promoting the image of Vietnam and its people in Macau.

The consul also expressed his hope for the association to work with the consulate-general to lobby local authorities to lift visa restrictions for Vietnamese tourists and workers.

“We hope that the Vietnamese people can easily apply for both tourist and working visas with a simpler application procedure and a quicker process for approval,” The Overseas Vietnamese Association of Macao President Duong Trung Duc told Good News Macau today.

Duong, who is a chef with many years of experience in Vietnamese cuisine, also said his association will this year continue promoting Vietnamese culture and food while also strengthening solidarity and unity in the SAR’s Vietnamese community.

Meanwhile, during Sunday’s luncheon, Consul Nguyen also awarded certificates of merit to some Vietnamese individuals and groups in Macau for their contributions to the local Vietnamese association and their homeland.

According to The Overseas Vietnamese Association of Macao, there are around 7,800 Vietnamese people working in Macau, mostly working as domestic workers. In addition, there are a few hundred Vietnamese nationals who hold Macau ID cards.

The number of Vietnamese in Macau before the pandemic was around 26,000 and was down to just about 3,000 people during the pandemic years, Duong said. (Gilbert Humphrey)