On Tuesday, a permanent member of the Da Nang People’s Council, Mr Ngo Xuan Thang, played host to a group of US parliamentary assistants, led by Mr Alex Harrison Herrgott, the Deputy Staff Director of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

On behalf of the city’s leaders, Mr Thang highlighted the important role of the visit by the US guests in boosting the bilateral friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with Viet Nam.  The host said that he would like the US parliamentary assistants to do their utmost to act as a bridge in fostering bilateral ties between Da Nang and US localities.  This will help them to boost mutual investment support and further the development of their economies in the spirit of friendship, solidarity and mutual development.

Mr Herrgott (left) and Mr Thang

In reply, Mr Herrgott thanked the city leaders for their warm welcome, and said he hoped that the US and Vietnamese governments in the years ahead would show their stronger determination to substantially mitigate the negative consequences of Agent Orange (AO), a bitter legacy of the war.  This will help to lift the bilateral cooperation between the two countries to new heights in the future.

Da Nang now has over 5,000 AO victims, more than 1,400 of whom are children.  Jointly implemented by the US and Vietnamese governments, the 1^st stage of the “Removal of Dioxin Contamination at the Da Nang International Airport” programme was carried out from 2008 to 2011, whilst the 2^nd stage has been underway since 2011.