Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has decided to set up the Vietnam-Japan University in a bid to foster mutual cultural understanding between the two countries. Costing an initial investment of $330 million, including $200 million from Japan’s official development assistance (ODA) and $100 million from Japanese businesses in Vietnam, the university will be located in Japan-invested Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park, about 40 kilometer west of Hanoi. The facility, which is under the management of Vietnam National University, will cooperate with tertiary institutions in Vietnam and Japan to train students in hi-tech, sciences, technology, healthcare, agriculture, Japanese language, law, economics and business administration. It will provide education and post-graduation programs and focus on research from 2022 once its construction is done. It targets to rank among the 50 best universities in Asia by 2025. The establishment is aimed at providing high training quality to students amid rising numbers of students going to Japan for study. It will also seek to bring Japanese culture closer to Vietnam as there is growing investment from Japan to the Southeast Asian country in recent years. Over the past decade, more Vietnamese people have been pursuing education abroad or tertiary training models jointly provided by domestic and foreign investors. (www.thesaigontimes.vn [1] July 23)
