Vietnam-Finland: Increased Cooperation in Education and ICT

Mr Ilkka-Pekka Simila said that with advantages of a country of the best education system in the world and leading science-technology in Nordic countries, in recent years, Finland has increased cooperation and assistance to Vietnam in education and ICT with most encouraging initial successes. ICT is regarded as the core of bilateral relations comprising e-government, Internet security, IT application and other intelligence solutions.

 

For his part, Mr Vo Tan Thanh, VCCI Vice President and Director of VCCI-HCMC, believed that in the context of Vietnam-EU all-sided cooperation and Vietnam-EU FTA negotiation basically concluded on August 4, 2015, Finland is a potential partner with important advantages for Vietnam, especially in trade, investment, education and ICT. Finland has increased cooperation with Vietnam in education and ICT. Over 500 Vietnamese are studying in Finland and most of them are self-financed students. The majority of the students are focusing on ICT and business management. Since 2006, Finland included Vietnam, the only country in Asia, in the list of North-South education program – Phase 2. The programme promotes the exchanges of students and professors of universities, post-graduates and Ph.D with diversified training courses. So far, however, only a few colleges could establish relationship with Finland such as Haiphong University and Hue Medical College.

 

 Regarding technology cooperation, Mr Thanh disclosed that Vietnam and Finland signed Memorandum of Understanding on Science and Technology Cooperation (MOU) 2008 replacing MOU signed in 1995. As a result, the two sides have concluded “Vietnam-Finland Innovation Partnership Programme (IPP).

 

Introducing IPP, Mr Riku Makela, Senior Innovation Advisor at Finland-Vietnam Innovation, said that IPP is the official assistance programme of the two countries sponsored by Finnish Foreign Ministry and Vietnam Ministry of Science and Technology. IPP – Phase I (2009-2013) with €7.19 million had been successfully implemented. Phase 2 (2014-2018) with €11 million has been started, focusing on improving legal instruments for the enforcement of Science-Technology Law 2013 and Science-Technology Strategy 2020, upgrading IPP training, creating regional products, training IPP consultants, forming cooperation between IPP communities of the two countries and sponsoring IPP Prizes.

 

Mr Riku Makela emphasized: “IPP has been implemented in Vietnam developing the cooperation between State offices, research institutes and businesses and forming favourable environment for IPP in Vietnam. Based on initial success, IPP will approach leading IPP partners in Vietnam and the world to find most appropriate solutions to help Vietnam, so that by 2020 Vietnam can export to world market products with IPP trademarks”.