Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnam Philatelic Association unde♌r the Vietnam Post Corporation🐼 hosted a conference of the executive committee of the Federation of Inter-Asian Philately (FIAP) in Hanoi from March 10 to 12. 

This is the second time Vietnam has hosted such an event.

The conference drew the participation of 30 delegates from Australia, China, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, United Arab Emirates (UAE), among others.

It highlighted 🐻FIAP’s activities over the past time, and outlined plan to ꦚpromote stamp collecting in Asia-Pacific.

On this occasion, the FIAP Executive Board will organise training programmes to improve the level and skills of forming and upgrading stamp collections to make them qualified to take part in international stamp exhibitions.   Leading stamp collectors in the region will provide Vietnamese collectors with new knowledge on stamp display and collection. According to Chu Thi Lan Huong, President of the Vietnam Philatelic Association, and Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Post Corporation, 28 years ago, the association first hosted the FIAP Executive Committee Meeting in Ho Chi Minh City.

She said that with FIAP’s support, Vietnam’s stamp collecting activities have been growing strongly. Now, there are 33 stamp collection associations across the country with thousands of members including children and students.

FIAP is a non-profit and non-political federation of philatelic societies in Asia and Australasia, founded in Singapore on September 14, 1974. Currently, the federation has 31 members which are stamp associations of the Asian region, Australia, and South Africa. Vietnam has been an official member of FIAP since 1993. Stamp collecting is one of the world’s most popular hobbies thanks to its affordability, educational benefits, and historical value. For many collectors, philately is an art, a passion, a way to communicate, and more.

Philately attracts the largest number of collectors. Collecting stamps involves hundreds of millions of people globally. In Vietnam, stamp collecting has become one of the most-enjoyed hobbies.

The stamp collecting hobby began more than 100 years ago in the developed postal sector of England. At that time, mail recipients had to pay for the delivery, which caused many problems. Rowland Hill, a British reformer, created the world’s first stamp in 1840. Since then, anyone who wanted to send a letter had to buy a postage stamp and stick it on the envelope.

Soon after adhesive postage stamps were introduced in England, the stamp collecting hobby was created and spread to other European countries, and then those countries began to publish their own stamps. Twenty years later, stamps were appearing in all countries around the world.

Stamp collecting arrived in Vietnam quite late, but the hobby has been popular here for over half a century. In 1946 Vietnam issued its first stamp series with images of Presid🔯ent Ho Chi Minh. It is now considered by philatelists to be one of the most valuable stamp series, and has been called by famous historian Duong Trung Quoc “a national treasure”./.