The national scientific conference “200 years of Vinh Te Canal - Historical value and future vision” aims to clarify the historical role of Vinh Te Canal in contributing to socio-economic development, protecting sovereignty, maintaining security and national defense in the southwestern border of the Fatherland. Thereby, proposing solutions to promote the value of Vinh Te Canal for the region in the future.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the An Giang Provincial Party Committee Le Hong Quang affirmed that the Vinh Te Canal project is a testament to the wisdom and ingenuity of our ancestors in conquering nature, demonstrating the strategic vision in affirming territorial sovereignty, reclaiming the southern land, developing the economy, diplomatic relations and consolidating national defense strength. Vinh Te Canal also affirms the great achievements in the career of the famous mandarin Thoai Ngoc Hau and his wife Chau Thi Te.
Over the past two centuries, Vinh Te Canal has played a particularly important role in many aspects, a vital traffic route, connecting regions, creating favorable conditions for transporting and trading goods. At the same time, it is a place to provide fresh water to deposit alluvium for the fields of the entire Long Xuyen Quadrangle. Above all, Vinh Te Canal plays the role of a solid natural defense line protecting the southwestern border of the Fatherland.
Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of An Giang Provincial Party Committee Le Hong Quang delivered the opening speech at the workshop.
At this workshop, delegates listened to reports, exchanged opinions, and discussed passionately and scientifically about the historical value, the role of Vinh Te canal in maintaining national defense - security, socio-economic development and recommendations and proposals in promoting the great value of Vinh Te canal at present and in the future. This is a valuable source of documents and scientific basis to help An Giang province in the management, exploitation, conservation as well as planning development policies related to Vinh Te canal, contributing to the overall development of An Giang province in the coming time.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Tran, former Vice Chairman of the State Committee for Science and Technology, former Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Foreign Affairs, presented a paper on "Vinh Te Canal and economic, social and environmental transformation of the Long Xuyen Quadrangle sub-region"
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Kim, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Cultural Heritage Council, former Vice President of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities presented a paper on "Vinh Te Canal - Historical and cultural values"
Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan - Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities presented a paper "Archival documents on Vinh Te canal (An Giang) - scientific value and exploitation orientation" Presenting a paper with the topic “Archival documents on Vinh Te canal (An Giang): Scientific value and exploitation orientation”, Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan - Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities introduced a number of archival sources related to Vinh Te canal and the Southwest region of the country. Through the introduction and preliminary assessment of the value of the sources, the article suggests a number of directions for exploiting archival documents to serve the in-depth research on this special canal as well as the Southwest region.
Through the Nguyen Dynasty's royal records, Vinh Te Canal is recorded not only as a border and military defense line, but also as an important trade route and economic exploitation of the Southwest region. The Nguyen Dynasty's royal records provide information on the organization and distribution of food and finance for militiamen participating in the canal digging, and at the same time describe the security and trade situation of the canal in the context of the border region.
French colonial documents, such as official gazettes and administrative maps, show that France continued to exploit and develop the Vinh Te Canal. Detailed maps of the Cochinchina region help record the location, geographical features, and importance of the Vinh Te Canal in the regional administrative and commercial system.
According to Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan, the archival documents on Vinh Te canal (Nguyen Dynasty records, administrative documents in French, maps) have a very great contribution. This group of documents is not only valuable for academic scientific research but also plays a foundational role for applied scientific research. For academic scientific research, diverse types of documents and rich reflective content can create a positive premise and prospect for the development of interdisciplinary research with many approaches: historical approach, humanistic ecological environment approach, geo-economic approach... For applied scientific research, highly reliable sources of documents will be a solid foundation to help plan policies and development strategies with a view of overall development and sustainable development for a space/region of Vinh Te canal.
Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Nguyen Quang Ngoc - Vice President of Vietnam Historical Science Association, former Head of History Department, University of Social Sciences and Humanities delivered a closing speech at the conference.
Chairman of An Giang Provincial People's Committee Ho Van Mung delivered a closing speech at the workshop.
In his closing speech at the workshop, Chairman of An Giang Provincial People's Committee Ho Van Mung emphasized that after more than one urgent working session with a serious spirit and high responsibility, the National Scientific Workshop "200 Years of Vinh Te Canal - Historical Values and Future Vision" has completed its content and program. This is an important workshop, of great significance in announcing the results and achievements of scientific research; at the same time, it is also an opportunity to propagate and promote the outstanding historical values of Vinh Te Canal and An Giang province.
An Giang province will accept the contributions, especially the valuable suggestions of the delegates and will study and select them for implementation in the future, based on the summary of practice. The scientific reports sent to the conference will be fully edited, printed into reference books, and widely disseminated about the 200-year historical values of Vinh Te canal so that the younger generation can better understand and love the historical land, rich in tradition, An Giang.
It is known that the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi will be the unit supporting An Giang province in building a database to preserve and exploit the value of Vinh Te canal on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of this historical work.
An Giang Newspaper:An Giang organizes National Scientific Conference "200 years of Vinh Te Canal - Historical value and future vision"
