Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Thanh Liem (R) and Chief Executive of ENZ Grant McPherson (Photo: hcmcpv.org.vn) HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City wants tocontinue its close collaboration with the Education New Zealand (ENZ), statedVice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Thanh Liem on March 22.
He made the statement while hosting Grant McPherson, ChiefExecutive of ENZ, the New Zealand government agency for building internationaleducation, in the city.
At the meeting, Liem said the Vietnam – New Zealand ties aregrowing fruitfully in many spheres, particularly education and training. Thesigning of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the municipal Departmentof Education and Training and the ENZ in January was an important event,creating favorable conditions for the sides’ effective engagements in thecoming time.
The official expressed his delight at New Zealand’s grantingof scholarships to Vietnamese high school students, saying it reflects the hostcountry’s goodwill and opportunities for local youths to access its world topquality education.
HCM City values New Zealand’s assistance for its humancapacity improvement, he said, hoping for further support to come in the field,particularly human resources training serving its smart city development, aswell as in the exchange of educational experience.
Liem took the occasion to offer his condolences to the NewZealand Government and people, especially families of the victims of massshootings at local Muslim mosques last Friday.
McPherson affirmed the March 15 terrorist attack in Christchurchcannot change the fact that New Zealand is a safe and peaceful country. NewZealand will spare no efforts to protect such values to ensure safety forforeign students, he added.
Praising HCM City authorities’ interest in boostingeducation and training cooperation with New Zealand, he said he hopes moresupport will come from the city in making the ties more effective.
He unveiled that his country is seeking methods for theexchange of ideas with the Vietnamese side on boosting educationalcollaboration in terms of artificial intelligence, suggesting the work could bedone initially via the signing of cooperation pacts between the two nations’localities.
The official stressed the ENZ wants to effectively implementcontents of the January MoU, particularly programmes on capacity training forHCM City’s public personnel, teachers and students; as well as on boostinghuman resources competency of Vietnamese and New Zealand sectors andeducational facilities.-VNA
VNA
