Following successful visit to Vietnam by David Cameroon in 2015, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc receives UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on 12 April 2016.

The two leaders marked up importance of education and training - one of the priority areas in the Strategic Partnership. The two sides agreed to continue close partnership to increase education effectiveness through activities such as implementing the Vietnam-UK Institute for Research and Executive Education; fostering the establishment of the Vietnam National Testing Centre, to collaborate towards enhancing skills development and quality assurance; and improving the implementation of the Newton Fund.

The UK Foreign Secretary agreed with the Vietnamese PM’s suggestion to boost bilateral affiliation in education, training, and science and technology, adding that he hoped the Vietnamese Government would further simplify administrative procedures in the aforesaid fields to attract investment from the UK. 

On the same day, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond held talks with Vietnamese Foreign Minister-cum-Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh.

The two sides expressed delight at the positive development of the Vietnam-UK strategic partnership and agreed on measures to promote the strategic partnership in various fields including politics, security and national defence, trade-commerce-investment, education and training, science-technology, the environment and climate change.

The two sides agreed to expanded co-operation in vocational training to help develop the qualified human resources of Vietnam.

In Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), the Chairman of the People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong remarked that the UK ranked 8th in investment out of the 74 countries and territories investing in the city.

He mentioned the 86-storey, US$1.2 billion observation tower complex project in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area in HCM City as an example of co-operation between businesses on the two sides.

Phong informed the UK diplomat about HCMC’s development vision to become a big training centre for economics and trade, science and technology, and education in the ASEAN region, and expressed his hopes that the UK would help the city train high-quality human resources through co-operation between universities on both sides.

He said UK businesses would invest more in the future - not only through individual projects, but also through the city's socio-economic development plans. 

Sources

VN wants closer collaboration with UK

Viet Nam, UK aim to boost trade, investment ties