Her Excellency Ambassador Phan Kieu Thu assumed office as the 7th Secretary General of the Colombo Plan on 1st May 2018.
Prior to taking up her appointment at the Colombo Plan she served as the Ambassador of Vietnam to Sri Lanka. During that time, she has taken an active part in the Colombo Plan Council Sessions. She was elected as the Deputy Chairman to the Consultative Committee Meeting of the Colombo Plan held in September 2016 in Fiji.
Born into a diplomatic family, she has inherited the family tradition of commitment to civil service and counts twenty years in the diplomatic service. She joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam in 1998 when she worked to build the bilateral relationships of Vietnam with various countries in South East Asia, South Asia and the South Pacific.
From January 2004 – March 2007 she was the Attaché and promoted to the rank of Third Secretary of the Embassy of Vietnam in Australia. During this period, she was in charge of Political, Economic as well as Cultural Affairs of the Embassy. She has worked intensively with APEC and WTO.
From April 2007 – December 2008 she served as Director of the Policy Planning and Research Division of the Department of Multilateral Economic Co-operation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vietnam. She handled WTO related projects in Vietnam.
From January 2011 – December 2011 she served as Director of South Asia, in the Department of South Asia, South East Asia and the South Pacific. She covered India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries.
From Jan 2012 – May 2014 she was appointed Deputy Director of the History Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in charge of writing and publishing the History of Vietnam’s diplomacy and Foreign Service.
In May 2014 she was appointed as the youngest female Ambassador of Vietnam since its independence in 1945. From 2014-2017 she served as Ambassador of Vietnam for Sri Lanka and Maldives.
She was elected as the 7th Secretary General of Colombo Plan and assumed duties at the Colombo Plan Secretariat on 1st May 2018.
She has her Bachelor’s Degree in Russian Literature and Language from the Hanoi University and Kiev Foreign Languages University in Ukraine. Further she has obtained her Masters’ in Public Policy from the Korean Development Institute (KDI) of the Republic of Korea and PhD in Economics from the University of Colombo (Sri Lanka). She has also successfully completed extensive study programs in Diplomatic studies and International Relations.
She is a Soubrette Soprano singer and sings in 12 languages. She is blessed with two children.