Vietnam is looking for support from Silicon Valley in the US to build a flagship university focusing on high-tech training and business management in the near future, said Ton Nu thi Ninh Vice Chairwomen of the Vietnamese National Assembly External Committee.
Ninh visiting the US since last week noted that the country wants Vietnamese-Americans and other Vietnamese expatriates with expertise in IT to teach at the future university at two meeting organized in Silicon Valley.
“The blueprint for the university would make it unique. It would be autonomous, taking little direction from the government ministry that oversees education,” she said adding that “some of the hottest issues of debate within the National Assembly are on education'’.
Ninh is on the tour to the US calling the support of the US elements for Vietnam’s proposal to receive the Permanent Normal Trade Relation (PNTR) status from the US congress, a vital condition for the country to gain membership to the World Trade Organization.
Currently, the labor force in the country’s IT sector is lacking quantity and is weak in quality, enterprises often complain about the newly-graduated applicants.
Besides, the number of training center in the field is limited and does not meet the demands of the society.
Despite those facts, the IT industry has become an important economic sector in Vietnam with an average growth rate of 20-25 percent a year, and is expected to gross a turnover of $6-7 billion in 2010.
Nevertheless, to turn Vietnam’s IT sector into one among the top ten in the world, Vietnam needs to have a strong and excellent workforce in the field.
A national survey on 7,484 Vietnamese aged between 14-25 showed that only 17.3 percent of young Vietnamese use the Internet, a low rate compared to regional countries.
According to the survey, more than 50 percent of the youth in urban areas use the Internet, and in rural areas, 12.8 percent. Most of them use the Internet for entertainment purposes, not information. About 6.7 percent of the users usually chat on the Internet and 61.7 percent play games.
Based on the results of this pilot project the committee would seek the government’s permission to promote the universal application of IT among youths in rural and mountainous areas in the next few years, he added.
Last year, the Vietnamese government announced that it invested US$12 million from the State budget in training personnel involved in science and technology abroad, a rise of 10 per cent over the same period in 2003. The country planned to pour an additional US$33 million into the project between 2004 and 2010. Media News, Vietnam Panorama
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