Vietnam and China will put forward detailed programmes to boost educational cooperation, especially with Hunan province in the near future.

The agreement was reached during Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan’s reception to Deputy Secretary of the Hunan provincial Party Committee, Mei Kebao in Hanoi on April 13.

Duputy PM Nhan affirmed that the special friendship founded and fostered by President Ho Chi Minh and President Mao Zedong would be ceaselessly strengthened and developed by the two governments and peoples, including Hunan locals.
Mei
He said that about 15,000 Vietnamese students in Chinese localities would become an important bridge to promote the bilateral cooperative ties.

Mei said that despite being distant from Vietnam, Hunan province always has deep sentiments to Vietnamese people, evidenced by the twining between Hunam and Nghe An provinces – the respective land of Presidents Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh, affirming the traditional friendship between the two peoples in general and the two localities in particular.

He affirmed that Hunam province would provide support to Vietnam to develop human resources, adding that many Vietnamese students receive scholarships from Hunam authorities to study tourism and trade in local universities and colleges.

The same day, five investment and trade projects worth 36.7 million USD by Hunan businesses were signed at the Vietnam-Hunam trade and investment cooperation forum

These projects are in waste treatment, assembly of passenger car bodywork, machinery for mining minerals and oriental herbal medicine.

Mei said that within the “Hunan – Southeast Asia Week” to be held this year to mark 20 th anniversary of the ASEAN-China dialogue relations, Hunan businesses chose Vietnam as the first destination for investment and cooperation.

Last year, two-way trade between Vietnam and Hunan reached 250 million USD. At present, Vietnam is Hunam’s largest partner in the Southeast Asian region./.