At reception, Mrs. Hoàng Thị Thảo welcomed the delegation and briefed the guests on current religious situation in Vietnam as well as the guidelines and policies of the Party and State on belief and religion over the past time. According to Mrs. Hoàng Thị Thảo, Vietnam is a multi–religion country with many religious followers; currently, about 95% Vietnamese population have a belief -related or religious life, including over 24 million religious followers (about 27% of overall population), 83,000 dignitaries and 25,000 worshipping places; Vietnam’s open-door policy in international relations has created favorable conditions for religions to operate and develop strongly in country over the past years. She also shared that Protestantism is one of the major religions in Vietnam with the number of followers increasing from 200,000 in 1975 to nearly 1.5 million now; the Vietnamese Party and State always pay due attention to the people’s life and their need for belief and religious practices, respect and guarantee citizen’s right to freedom of belief and religion; all religions are equal before the law; the Vietnamese Government has also created favorable conditions for religious organizations to apply for recognition.

On behalf of the delegation, Mrs. Toby Schwartz thanked the Government Committee for Religious Affairs for its warm welcome and expressed her expectation that the two sides will have more cooperation opportunities in the coming time.