Vietnam Town project underway in Thailand's Udon Thani province

Udon Thani is currently home to more than 60,000 Vietnamese-origin people. President Ho Chi Minh lived in the locality in the 1920s.

The Vietnam Town is expected to become a cultural center of Vietnamese people in Thailand's northeastern region, and a place to keep the tradition and culture of the Vietnamese community as well as a tourist attraction.

The project has received strong support of the local administration, which decided to invest 3 million THB (nearly US$86,000) in building and upgrading the infrastructure system of the town.

Visiting the construction site in Alley 2 on Saturday, Si Suk street of Udon Thani city, Ambassador Thanh and Udon Thani city Mayor Thanadorn Phuttharaksa discussed measures to speed up the progress of the project.

Ambassador Thanh thanked Mayor Thanadorn and the administration of Udon Thani city for their support to the Vietnamese community as well as the investment in the project. He described the project as a symbol of the friendship and warm sentiments that Thai and Vietnamese people give each other as well as the traditional bilateral ties.

With the project, Thani will be the first city in the world that has a Vietnam Town, he said.

For his part, Mayor Thanadorn highly valued the traditional beauty of Vietnamese people, which has been maintained among the Vietnamese community in Udon Thani.

He affirmed that the municipal administration will complete the upgrade of roads and pavements of the town in two months, and finish the decoration within this year.

He added that the city will also coordinate with the Vietnamese Thai Association in the province to implement the project, including the building of food stalls and souvenir shops, thus attracting visitors.

During his stay in Udon Thani, Ambassador Thanh also discussed with local authorities and leaders of Udon Thani Rajabhat University on the implementation of some projects to preserve and promote Vietnamese culture in the locality, including the building of a Vietnamese Culture Center in the city and the setting up of a faculty of Vietnamese studies at the university.