Thousands of Lao officials and students come to Vietnam to study every year, and their knowledge will help Laos further develop, the country’s Deputy Minister of Education and Sports Kongsy Sengmany has said.

At a meeting in Hanoi on January 22 to review Lao students’ performance in Vietnam in the 2012 – 13 academic year, he thanked the Vietnamese Government for its cooperation and assistance with Laos in the training of human resources.

The official noted that Vietnam has prioritised support to Laos in the field of education and made Lao students very welcome.

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Education and Training Tran Quang Quy said education collaboration is always high on the agenda at annual inter-Governmental meetings between the two countries, adding that this has contributed to their growing bilateral traditional relations.

He added that to better the training quality, Vietnam will raise its recruitment requirements and demand higher levels of Vietnamese language-ability from Lao students.

In 2013, there were nearly 6,500 Lao students studying at 150 universities and academies in Vietnam.-VNA