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Tens of thousands of Vietnamese took to the streets of Ho Chi Minh City to mark the 30th anniversary of the Southern liberation and national unification, culminating with a parade along the central boulevard.
On April 30, 1975, tanks of the Liberation Army rolled along the same boulevard towards the then presidential palace, marking the victory of Vietnam's resistance war and the country's reunification.
Thirty years later, almost fifty thousand people from all walks of life gathered since early morning to participate in a ceremony which was as much about the prosperous future as the heroic past.
The country's top leaders, including the Communist Party's General Secretary Nong Duc Manh, President Tran Duc Luong, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, General Vo Nguyen Giap, as well as veterans, foreign envoys, and delegations overseas Vietnamese, also attended the gala celebrations.
More than 160 journalists from 74 foreign news agencies and newspapers also flocked to the city to cover the celebrations.
A grand parade and street performance followed the ceremony, with soldiers and students enacting phases of the war and liberation. It closed at 9:15am with clusters of balloons carrying toy doves up into the sky.
For a week, the entire city centre has been festooned with large, colourful banners and flowers.
Looking forward
While Vietnam proudly recalled its past victories, the commemoration was mostly accented on the city's economic achievements.
"The 20 years of renewal has seen major progress in all fields for the city. Its high economic growth has contributed considerably to the national economy," said Nguyen Minh Triet, Secretary of the municipal Party Committee.
HCM City will continue with its renewal process, promoting the city's unity, mobilizing all possible resources and grasping any available opportunity to more quickly and sustainably boost economic development, Triet said.
The city will make efforts to gradually emerge as a Southeast Asian mecca of industry, services and science-technology, emphasized the city leader.
In recognition of its achievements, the State awarded the city the title "Hero of Labour". President Tran Duc Luong himself presented the medal to city officials at the meeting.
"From a consumption city with a dependent economy, HCM City has shed the old mechanism and gradually built a dynamic new development and management mechanism model, which imparts lessons of macro significance to localities nationwide," Luong said.
"As far as economic development, the city has been continually recording high growth rates, particularly in the past five years. The city is capable of gathering its great internal strength, and at the same time attracting large volumes of foreign investment, attracting human resources from other localities, and becoming a locomotive for economic development in the country and the region as well," Luong also said.
The city now accounts for 20% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), and one-third of the State budget revenues.
Luong urged HCM City to turn itself into a civilized and modern city, the truly biggest economic hub of the country; and strive to become an industrial, service, scientific and technical centre of Southeast Asia.
Reconciliation
On the eve of the anniversary, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai urged all sides involved in the past war to close the past and look forward.
"We advocate friendly co-operation to strengthen relations with countries that took part in the Vietnam War," Khai said at the National Assembly hall in Hanoi, addressing top Vietnamese leaders, war veterans and foreign envoys, including U.S. Ambassador Michael Marine.
Khai also urged all Vietnamese, including those overseas, to work for national unity and to help build the country. Some 2.7 million people of Vietnamese origin live abroad, about half of them in the United States.
"Thirty years after the war, the country has full reconciled now. Maybe some people still feel bitter about the liberation of Sai Gon but that number is very small," AP quoted Han Van Minh, 65, who was a sergeant in the Saigon army and now runs a small business, as saying.
Celebrating their 30th birthdays, more than 1,000 babies born on Liberation Day were among those who tucked into the Vietnamese record-breaking five-tonne cake baked in their honour.
On the same day, similar meetings and festive activities were organized in other localities, including southern An Giang, Dong Thap and Vinh Long provinces, to celebrate the liberation of Southern Vietnam and national reunification.
The occasion was also marked by Vietnamese embassies in Thailand, the U.S., and South Africa on April 29.
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