President Nguyen Minh Triet (right) yesterday met with Yohei Sasakawa, president of the Nippon Foundation.
"The assistance and support of the Nippon Foundation brings joy and happiness to many Vietnamese, but especially those who are poor or handicapped," he said.

The main purpose of Sasakawa's visit was to donate aver 30,000 artificial limbs to disabled individuals on behalf of the foundation.

The President, who thanked the foundation on behalf of both the State and the Vietnamese people, said he hoped that it would continue its work in Vietnam.

Its programmes should target the improvement of living standards for the poor and disabled and the creation of conditions favourable to their integration into the wider society, he said.

The disabled needed technical equipment for rehabilitation and artificial limbs for participation in everyday activities.

But both the poor and the disabled needed to learn skills that would help them find work and the foundation's help in this effort was crucial.

Yohei Sasakawa re-assured the president that his foundation would continue to support the poor and the disabled and would continue to work with the Education and Training and other ministries and agencies to plan suitable programmes.

These would provide opportunities to acquire much needed skills.

The Nippon Foundation president said he understood that Vietnam cared about its poor and disabled and his foundation was both honoured and grateful for the State's recognition and support.

The Nippon Foundation had long helped with artificial limbs and vocational training programmes for disabled Vietnamese.

Earlier, the Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Ministry presented the Nippon Foundation and its president with its insignia in recognition of both his and his organisation's work in Vietnam.

The Nippon Foundation is a non-government organisation that was founded in the 1980s. It works in several countries to promote mutual understanding and cultural exchange.

Sasakawa also met with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem yesterday. The two discussed measures to assist the foundation in its work in Vietnam.

Khiem thanked the foundation for its help to the disabled and poor. The assistance expressed the kindness of the Japanese people toward Vietnam, said the deputy PM.

Khiem expressed optimism about bilateral relations with Japan, and said Vietnam supported and created favourable conditions for the Nippon Foundation to conduct charity work.

The Nippon Foundation president used the meeting to announce that his organisation planned to build 100 primary schools in rural Vietnam and their curriculum would include cultural and educational exchange programmes with schools in Japan.

Metro's policy praised

President Nguyen Minh Triet yesterday also received General Director of the Metro Cash&Carry International Asia-Pacific James Scott, who is in Vietnam for the opening of the new wholesale centre in Hoang Mai District, Hanoi.

The President has singled out Metro Cash&Carry's contributions to Vietnam's economic development and praised the group's personnel training and market policies in the country.

"With the use of its on-the-spot personnel training, Metro Cash&Carry Vietnam has become a centre to introduce its business expertise to other centres of the group in Asia," Scott told the President.

He went on to say that a number of the retailers' staff have been posted abroad to head the group's business operations overseas.

Last year, Metro Cash&Carry opened an office in HCM City to gather goods for export to the greater Asian region.

Metro Cash&Carry has worked with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to explore opportunities for opening additional wholesale centres in a number of the country's provinces and cities, he added.

Since entering Vietnam six years ago, Metro Cash&Carry has opened eight wholesale centres in the country at a cost of around US$120mil.

With 3,000 employees, only eight of whom are foreigners, Metro Cash&Carry is now one of the country's largest foreign distributors.