H.E. Mrs. Ngo Thi Hoa is the new Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. She is bringing decades-worth of diplomatic experience to her new term in The Hague along with a very clear goal.
After graduating from the Diplomat Academy of Vietnam in 1987, Mrs. Hoa spent the next few years honing her foreign language skills. In addition to French and English, which she learned in the Academy, she studied Russian at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in Ukraine throughout 1988. After returning to Hanoi, Vietnam, she also spent time learning Khmer until 1989.
When she joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam (MOFA) in 1991, Mrs. Hoa was assigned to be an expert in the Southeast Asia – South Asia – South Pacific Department (SEA-SA-SP). She served her first term abroad as an attache at the Embassy of Vietnam in the Philippines from 1996 to 1999, during which she earned her Master’s degree in International Studies at De La Salle University situated in Manila.
After returning from the Philippines, she was appointed as the Assistant to the Director-General of the SEA-SA-SP Department and later promoted to be the department’s Deputy Director-General in 2005. Three years later, Mrs. Hoa served her second term abroad in Cambodia as Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission until 2011.
Following her term in Phnom Penh, she was appointed Deputy Director-General of the Personnel Department as well as the head of the Women’s Committee at MOFA. Two years later, Mrs. Hoa was appointed Inspector in Chief – a position she held until her third term abroad. In 2016, she was named the Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and she recently presented her credentials to His Majesty King Willem-Alexander on January 25th, 2017.
In the upcoming years, Mrs. Hoa aims to strengthen and elevate the multi-faceted cooperative relationship between Vietnam and the Netherlands. She wishes to facilitate more collaboration between these two countries, especially in the areas of climate change, water management, modern agriculture, and more. Her additional goals during this term are also to promote Vietnamese culture and support the Vietnamese community here in the Netherlands. She has her mind set on organizing an array of events and activities to achieve these aims.
Furthermore, Mrs. Hoa hopes to successfully represent her country in the multilateral domain as Vietnam is a member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Committee of The Hague.
In her free time, Mrs. Hoa likes to do sports (such as cycling, tennis, and golf), reading, watching movies, traveling, and she is also a foodie. Additionally, she is passionate about feminism and charity as well. Mrs. Hoa wishes to bring these hobbies and interests into the events that she will hold in the future; at the moment, she is already thinking about an event that would promote Vietnamese cuisine.
In addition to her aforementioned hobbies, Mrs. Hoa is also interested in home decor and gardening. The Vietnamese Embassy recently moved to a new location and the building is currently under renovation, meaning that it is a blank canvas waiting to be painted on. Upon knowing this, she is extremely thrilled to decorate the embassy in a way that would showcase the Vietnamese style. The idea is to have traditional Vietnamese decor and artwork displayed throughout the embassy, with flowers and trees being in various places including the courtyard.
The diplomat community in The Hague sends a warm welcome to Ambassador Hoa and we are very excited to see her ideas come to fruition.
