Documents dating back from the French colonial era stored by the National Archives Centre No 1 were displayed last year. — Photo baotintuc.com

HÀ NỘI — The directors of the departments of State Records Management and Archives of Laos and Việt Nam yesterday signed on a MoU to enhance co-operation in archival management especially sharing the documents relating to Indochina.

The departments have co-operated since 2012 in sharing documents and training human resources. Directors Thongchanh Keosenhom and Đặng Thanh Tùng signed the MoU to continue co-operation during 2020.

They will collect and share the archives relating to Indochina which were separated after the war.

“The National Archives Centre No 1 currently stores more than 5,000m documents of colonial era, including papers, photos and films, 80 per cent of the documents are written in French,” said Tùng.

“When the war ended, these documents were dispersed in France, Laos, Cambodia and Việt Nam. They are very important for the history of each country, the region and the world.

“Researching archives doesn’t allow us to understand more about history only but it also helps preserve and restore the existing constructions built during the colonial time such as railways, buildings and streets.”

Director Keosenhom said the co-operation between two departments was proof of the excellent relationship between the two countries.

“In recent years, the co-operation with Việt Nam’s Department of State Records Management and Archives helped us deal with difficulties in collecting, preserving documents as well as training human resources,” she said.

“Next year, we will join hands to create more achievement in archival field, with a vision to nominate Indochinese archives as Memory of the World heritage.” — VNS