An Audience with the Vietnamese Prime Minister
Tin was cordially invited for the meet & greet with the Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the end of his tour in Norway. The event was broadcast on Vietnam’s premiere news channel VTV. Meanwhile all the other representatives were challenging the Prime Minister on education, business development, foreign affairs, Tin asked for a cup of water.
The goal of this meeting was for the PM to meet the Vietnamese expatriates. He encouraged the expats to continue learning from Norway’s scientific and technological knowledge, but not lose sight of Vietnamese culture and language. When Tin was asked by the other attendees at the event if he managed to preserve his cultural heritage and language, he spoke softly: “to succeed in another country, is also to lose some of our own culture”. Tin was invited among 8 other young students and knowledge workers that had succeeded in Norway. Yet, he was only 1 out of 2 Norwegians of Vietnamese heritage present, among 50-60 attendees including ministers and the PM’s entourage. The reasons as to why a Norwegian and non-expat, was invited to an all-exclusive Vietnamese expat event, remains unclear to this day.
Other activities during the tour, include meeting His Majesty King Harald V, the Norwegian PM Erna Solberg, the companies Kongsberg Maritime and Pharmaq etc. Nguyen would go on to become the President of Vietnam in 2021, Tin would go on and become President of his own company.
