Vietnam and Japan have signed and exchanged a legal document on a cooperative agreement to send and receive nurses and orderlies between the two countries.

The document was signed by Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang on April 18 and Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba one day earlier.

The document details legal document outlining the pledge made by the two countries in the Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement signed in December 2008.

It also concretises a memorandum of understanding on the mechanism to receive qualified Vietnamese nurses and orderlies, signed by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Japanese counterpart Yoshihiko Noda on October 31, 2011 during PM Dung’s visit to Japan.

Under the agreement, Japan will officially receive qualified Vietnamese nurses and orderlies in both the profession and the Japanese language to study and work in Japan for three years (for nurses) and four years (for orderlies).

During that time, they have to sit the examination to gain Japan’s national certificate and if they pass, they can work in an ongoing role in Japan’s hospitals and sanatoriums.

In turn Vietnam will receive Japanese nurses and orderlies qualified in the profession and in the Vietnamese language to work in Vietnam.

Vietnam has become the third country to cooperate with Japan in the exchange of nurses and orderlies.-VNA