Addressing the event, Vietnamese Minister of Education and Training-cum-Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said Vietnam gives top priority to the development of high-quality human resources. The country has sought many ways to renovate its education sector, improve the quality of teaching, and link training with social demand, he said.

The sector has adopted national programmes to train thousands of doctoral degree holders and apply more than 1,500 electronic course books to tertiary teaching. It has also given preferential credit to poor students and higher autonomy to universities and colleges.

Vietnam is endeavouring to have five of its universities ranked among the world’s top 200 universities by 2020, and to this end, it needs, the minister stressed, assistance from advanced countries, including Japan.

Shigeharu Kato, a representative of the Japanese Ministry of Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, told the conference that his country is willing to share its experience and to cooperate with Vietnam in tertiary education. It will also create incentives for Vietnamese students and postgraduates to study in Japan.

The Japanese government has so far helped Vietnam build 256 primary schools in remote areas and raise the level of training and research at more than 100 Vietnamese colleges and universities.

In March 2008, the two countries’ Ministries of Education and Training signed a memorandum-of-understanding under which Japan will help Vietnam train 1,000 doctoral degree holders at Japanese universities from 2008-2010.