National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue speaks at the forum (Photo: VNA) Both Hue and Senator Tim Ayres, whois Assistant Minister for Trade and Assistant Minister for Manufacturing of Australia,agreed that education and training cooperation has always been a pillar and a"bright spot" in the two country’s relations.
In 1974 – just one year after the two set up theirdiplomatic ties, Australia granted the first scholarships to Vietnamesestudents, and since then more than 80,000 Vietnamese students have completedtheir study here.
With around 30,000 students currently studying in Australia,Vietnam ranks fourth in terms of the number of students in the country.
Appreciating Vietnam’s renewal process and its goal ofbecoming a high-income country by 2045, Tim Ayres emphasised that this targetcan be achieved only with highly skilled workers, and cooperation in educationand training will play an important role.
Therefore, Australian higher education institutions are alsolooking to Vietnam to seek new opportunities and expand collaboration with theVietnamese workforce, not only encouraging Vietnamese students to study inAustralia, but also vice versa, to learn from each other's experiences, headded.
The Vietnamese NA Chairman said that bilateral cooperationin education and training helps not only develop human resources to serve rapidand sustainable economic development of each country, but also connectthe two cultures and foster the bilateral friendship.
He stressed the need to increase the number of jointtraining programmes between Vietnamese higher education institutions andhigh-ranked ones of Australia, with focus on science and technology and PhDtraining; speed up the exchange of students and lecturers as well as promotingresearch cooperation between Australian and Vietnamese universities; andencourage more prestigious Australian universities to open branches in theSoutheast Asian country.
Attention should also be paid to supporting the teaching andlearning of English language in Vietnam, he added.
He expressed his belief that this forum will open up a new stagefor bilateral education cooperation, thus contributing to enhancing theVietnam-Australia strategic partnership.
NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Andrew John Lech Goledzinowski witness the exchange of 12 documents and memoranda of understanding on cooperation in education and training between the two countries’ universities (Photo: VNA)
VNA
