Hanoi (VNA) – The Party and State havealways created optimal conditions for religious organisations and individuals topractice their religions and beliefs.

Apart from facilitating the handover of land to theconstruction of worship places, the Party and State have also paid attention toother religious activities such as operation registration, and the ordainment andtraining of religious dignitaries and assistants.

The development of religious organisations requires intensivetraining for religious dignitaries and assistants. Therefore, many religionshave been allowed to establish training institutions and open training courses.

The country counts 62 religious training establishmentsin 36 cities and provinces, including 11 grand seminaries and academies of the CatholicChurch of Vietnam; four institutions, 34 schools and eight colleges on Buddhismrun by the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha; among others in various localities.

Since the Law on Belief and Religion came into forcein 2018, the Catholic Church of Vietnam has built two religious training establishments. Many of its institutions have been licensed to provide master’s anddoctoral training.

The Cao Dai academy has established with the AnteCreation (Cao Dai Tien Thien) Church as the legal representative. The establishment,whose opening contents were approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs, has admittedhundreds of people, helping improve knowledge for Cao Dai dignitaries.

Along with general religious knowledge, the trainingcourses for Cao Dai dignitaries and assistants have also popularised the State’slaw and regulations on religious activities.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister on August 8, 2006, approvedthe formation of the Khmer Theravada Buddhist Institute, whose first course wasofficially opened nearly one year later, said head of the institute MostVenerable Dao Nhu, who is also Vice President of the VBS’s Executive Council.

Other legitimate needs of religious organisations havealso received due attention from the Party and State, from ordainment and operationregistration to daily activities of dignitaries and assistants.

According to the Government Committee for ReligiousAffairs, the State has recognised and licensed 43 organisations belonging to 16religions with about 26.5 million followers, making up 27% of the nationalpopulation, of which over 54,000 are dignitaries and more than 135,000 areassistants, along with nearly 30,000 worship places.

The ordainment, appointment, election, nominationand transfer of dignitaries, assistants, monks and nuns of religiousorganisations have been conducted smoothly thanks to the instruction ofrelevant consulting agencies.

During the three years of implementation of the Law on Belief and Religion, from 2018 to 2021, a total of 5,572 people in 62 out ofthe  country's 63 cities and provinces were ordained as dignitaries, and 12,421 others appointed as assistants.

The number of licensed religious sites and groupsalso increased from 2,691 before 2018 to 1,112 after the law came effective.

Concentrated religious activities of foreigners inVietnam have also been ensured, with 67 sites and groups gathering hundreds offoreign nationals legally residing in the country, mostly in Ho Chi Minh City(41) and Hanoi (13). The religious followers come fromdifferent countries like the Republic of Korea (RoK), the Philippines,Singapore, Malaysia, the US, and France.

Chairman of the Government Committee for Religious Affairs VuHoai Bac quoted the law as saying that religious organisations are allowed topublish religious books and other publications. To exercise this right, manyreligious organisations and individuals have registered the publication.

Statistics show that the Religious Publishing Housewas allowed to issue 2,027 publications with over 7 million copies between2017 and 2021, many of which have been translated into English, French andethnic languages.

As many as15 newspapers and magazines of religiousorganisations are operating in Vietnam. Most of the religious organisationshave launched their own websites. In the first half of this year, all-levelauthorities have approved the issuance for 140 publications, with over 684,000 copies./.

ꦏ[Right to freedom of belief, religion respected, protected in Vietnam]