The central province of Quang Tri and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) on December 3 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on their collaboration plan between 2014 and 2017.

Under the plan named the “Happiness Programme in Quang Tri”, the Republic of Korea (RoK) side will offer 9.6 million USD in non-refundable assistance to help the province raise local people’s awareness of self-control in economic development.

Another aim of the project is to step up local poverty reduction, reform administrative procedures and tackle corruption.

The programme will support Quang Tri enhance new rural construction and the quality of local human resources, especially health officials, in addition to offering educational and medical equipment.

The RoK pledged to spare no efforts to successfully implement the programme in Quang Tri and expand it nationwide.

In addition, the RoK will use its experience in the New Villages Movement to assist the construction of new rural areas in Vietnam.

On the same day, upgrades to Quang Tri Vocational School funded by the RoK government were unveiled.
The school received investment totalling 5.4 million USD, including 4.7 million USD in non-refundable assistance from the RoK government, which was used to build a Vietnam-RoK Cultural Centre and six faculties providing training in hi-tech industrial jobs.

Its lecturers and officials were also given the chance to attend refresher courses in the RoK to better their professional capacity.-VNA