Many bilateral and multilateral agreements were signed at the second ASEM Ministerial Meeting on Education (ASEMME 2) which concluded in Hanoi on May 15.

As part of this, seminars, conferences and meetings will be held over the next two years for educational experts to examine issues on higher education and vocational training.

The Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Minister of Education and Training, Nguyen Thien Nhan, said that during the conference and bilateral meetings with China, Finland, Thailand, Denmark, Singapore, Germany and Latvia, many countries expressed their desires to step up cooperative ties with Vietnam in education and training.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) and its counterparts from Germany, Cambodia and Laos signed joint statements regarding cooperation in managing the quality of higher education and vocational training, exchanging lecturers and students and the possibility of considering recognising each other’s degrees.

The MoET along with Vietnam’s Ministry of Health and the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology also signed an agreement to support human resources development in Vietnam’s pharmaceutical sector.

The MoET and its Danish counterpart agreed to hold a seminar on educational cooperation in the Vietnamese central city of Nha Trang in October.

ASEMME 3 is scheduled to take place in Denmark in 2010.

VietNamNet/VNA