The government of the Czech Republic on July 3 approved a resolution recognising Vietnamese-born Czechs as its 14th ethnic minority group. A congress of Vietnamese expats in Prague The Cabinet got the nod to a proposal made by the country’s Deputy Prime Minister cum Minister of Foreign Affairs, and President of the Government Council for National Minorities. Vietnamese ambassador to the Czech Republic Do Xuan Dong described the decision as a milestone in the history of the development of Vietnamese communities abroad, and in the Czech Republic in particular. The most important thing is that Vietnamese nationals are now treated as equally as other expats residing in the Czech Republic, the ambassador said. He went on to say that as the Czech Republic is a European Union member, its national ethnic minority groups will receive assistance to preserve their own cultural identities, languages and scripts. According to the diplomat, the EU and the Czech Republic annually allocate a certain amount of money from their budgets for preserving distinctive cultural identities of their various ethnic minority groups. This means Vietnamese expats are allowed to build cultural centres, and shops labelled in English, Czech and Vietnamese languages. Vietnam has approximately 60,000 nationals living in the Czech Republic, ranking it third only after Ukraine and Slovakia in terms of overseas residents. VOV