The 47 th Southeast Asian Minister of Education Council (SEAMEC) conference will take place in Hanoi on March 19-21, the Ministry of Education and Training announced on March 15.

This is the second time Vietnam hosts the event, which is a ministerial-level forum to discuss initiatives and policies of the ASEAN and set out the direction for implementing the programmes and projects of the Southeast Asian Minister of Education Organisation (SEAMEO).

The Vietnamese Minister of Training and Education will serve as President of SEAMEO council in the 2013-2015 period.

According to Deputy Minister of Training and Education Pham Manh Hung, in the framework of the 47 th SEAMEC conference, legal agreements for the operation of the SEAMEO Centre for Lifelong Learning in Vietnam will be finalized, while the UK will be admitted to be the 8 th Associate Member Countries. The seven other associate member countries are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway.

The conference will also launch the SEAMEO forum project sponsored by ADB as well as adopt the SEAMEO Declaration on strategic cooperation toward the region’s development.