Vietnam and Russia signed on Nov 12 two agreements during President Vladimir Putin’s official visit to Hanoi to strengthen their cooperation in education, local media reported. The pacts include one on Vietnamese citizens studying at Russia’s education institutions and the other on the cooperation between Hanoi University of Business and Technology and Moscow Academy of Economics and Law in setting up the Vietnam-Russia University of Humanities. Vietnam needs to train its workforce in biology, new material technology, space energy, marine science research, ship design and nuclear technology development, said Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan, adding that the country hopes to increase the number of Russian scholarships for Vietnamese citizens to 1,000 by 2020. The two sides agreed to speed up the forming of a Vietnam-Russia Technology University and to promote the teaching of the Russian language and culture at Vietnamese education institutions. On the occasion, they also stressed the need to elevate the Vietnam-Russia joint committee on science and technology cooperation into an intergovernmental committee on education, training and science-technology cooperation. Currently, around 5,000 Vietnamese students are studying at universities in Russia. Annually, the government of Russia grants hundreds of scholarships to students in the Southeast Asian nation. (Tien Phong – Pioneer Nov 13, Nhan Dan – The People Nov 13)
