The Vietnamese and Finnish governments on March 6 signed an 11 million EUR agreement for the second phase of their joint innovation partnership programme (IPP).
The phase, which will run from 2014-2018, has been financed with 9.9 million EUR from Finland’s non-refundable aid and 1.1 million EUR from the Vietnamese Government.
It aims to enhance the capacity of Vietnam’s information technology system, allowing the country to increase activities in scientific research and technology development, thus contributing to the socio-economic development of Vietnam.
The Vietnam-Finland IPP is considered the focus point of the Nordic country’s current support to Vietnam .
Addressing the signing ceremony, Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan expressed his belief that in its second phase, the programme will continue helping Vietnam to make vital progress in strengthening the connectivity among businesses and scientists from both sides.
In this phase, the programme will focus on completing legal frameworks in science and technology, enhancing creative renovation, supporting and developing products at regional level and building a strong expert team to give advice in technology innovation for businesses, he said.
The first phase of IPP was conducted from 2009-2013 at a cost of more than 7 million EUR, mostly from Finnish aid, under the management of the Ministry of Science and Technology and Finland ’s Foreign Ministry.
