Vietnam - France Cooperation: Diversified and Sustainable

Vietnam is a few country receiving three sources of financial aids from France: the Treasury, the French Development Agency and Priority Social Fund (FSP). Vietnam is the seventh biggest recipient of France’s ODA aids. So far, France funded a total EUR1.2 billion for 210 projects. Especially, in recent years, France pledged continued increase in ODA aids for Vietnam. In the visit of French minister cooperation and francophone to Vietnam, France announced to provide Vietnam EUR1.4 billion worth of ODA for the period from 2006 to 2010, giving priority to infrastructure, SME assistance, agriculture and food safety, service, banking and finance. Now, France has focused medium-term cooperation with Vietnam on four prioritised fields: legal and political reform; education and research modernisation and economic reform, and poverty reduction and social welfare improvement through community healthcare.

 

The Vietnam-France healthcare relation initiated at the start of 19^th century. Since then, it was continuously developed. Notably, the hospital-based university training programme (with FFI training courses for resident physicians at levels 1,2,3 and 4) gives opportunities for 1,500 Vietnamese doctors to follow a one-year training and research in France. Other programmes are the FMC programme (granting DU/DIU certificates of emergency, photography, tumour, disease management, and odonto-maxillo-facial), hospital-based training programme (for northern and southern regions) for medical, pharmaceutical and dental students.

 

Besides, Vietnamese and French hospitals also promote cooperation by exchanging experts, training and equipment. The first kidney transplant case for children is the clear-cut for this cooperative tie. In addition, there are theoretical and physical training, technology transfer, annual seminars on ear-nose-throat, cancer, odonto-maxillo-facial, cardiology and endocrine. 

 

The joint ANRS programme (French National Agency for AIDS Research) carried out through Pasteur Institute since 2003 under the agreement of the two governments in 1993 helped 100 Vietnamese HIV/AIDS patients. This research was the first initiative for the introduction of three antivirus drugs into treatment in Vietnam. The ESTHER programme based on cooperation agreements between Vietnamese hospitals and French partners created favourable conditions for 300 patients to be treated with antivirus methods. Moreover, there are many non-government HIV/AIDS programmes such as Meùdecins du Monde, Secours Populaire Français and Handicap International.

 

Annually, France provides around EUR10 million focused on language training, administrative reform, legal construction and finance. This fund also covers some 100 scholarships for postgraduates. In science, technology and scientific study, Vietnam allowed the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and the French Institute of Research and Development (IRD) to set up representative offices in January 2006.

 

In addition to these traditional channels, cooperation between regions of the two countries is also extensively and intensively developed. At present, 52 French localities are partners of Vietnamese provinces and cities where 657 French-funded projects have been developed (with 257 finished projects and 400 ongoing projects).

 

The 6^th decentralised cooperation conference was held for the first time in Vietnam in 2005. The two countries also had many Francophone activities: French teaching, university lecturing and parliamentary activities.

 

Fashion is a priority field in the cooperation of the two nations. The partnership relations between SCAC, FADIN Fashion Institute, VINATEX, Institute of French Fashion and French Association for Action Arts were materialised through training programmes for young Vietnamese designers in France (2003), introductions of young French designers to Vietnam Collection Grand Prix 2003 and training programmes of IFM professors (2004) for young Vietnamese designers.

 

The Vietnamese Ministry of Finance and the International Technical Cooperation Agency of the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry (ADETEF) have recently signed strategic Vietnam-France financial cooperation for the 2008-2010 period. Vietnamese Deputy Finance Minister Tran Van Ta said this is an activity to increase transparency of state and private agencies through enhancing economic and financial management.

 

The bilateral strategic cooperation focused on three fields: treasury, tax and customs. Accordingly, the treasury field will concentrate on activities to enhance the treasury and budget management information system (TABMIS). Regarding tax cooperation, France assistances will focus on consolidating tax cooperation and settling debts. In customs field, France will help modernise this sector to meet the requirements of economic growth and international economic integration. In addition, Vietnam and France are also concerned about inspection cooperation. The two ministries are finalising procedures to set up and launch inspection cooperation programme within 2008.