The event was attended by Vietnamese linguists, representatives from local universities and agencies as well as delegates from the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, China, Japan and Laos. Participants assessed the basic and urgent issues Vietnam’s linguistics over the past time as well as mapped out orientations for the sector’s future development. More than 240 studies delivered by domestic and foreign scientists provided scientific foundations for the Party and State to make linguistic policies. Among those discussed at the seminar were phonology, lexicon, semantics and morphology of Vietnamese and other languages; the relationship between language and culture; impacts of urbanisation and international integration on Vietnamese; languages of minority ethnic groups and foreign languages in the industrialisation and modernisation./.