A student is recruited by Japanese businesses at Đà Nẵng's Đông Á University. More than 200 students qualified for interviews by Japanese businesses for working in Japan from 2021. VNS Photo Phương Chi

ĐÀ NẴNG — Japan has promoted its Consulate Office in Đà Nẵng City to General Consulate just a year after it was founded to boost ties between Japan and the central city.

Head of the Japanese General Consulate, Yakabe Yoshinori, made the announcement at the Japanese-Vietnamese Culture Exchange and Recruitment Day in the central city’s Đông Á University last weekend.

He said the move showed that the government of Japan appreciates the important role of Đà Nẵng.

“The relationship of Japan and Đà Nẵng will be further strengthened in the coming time, and the number of Japanese tourists and investors to Đà Nẵng would increase when COVID-19 is completely under control,” Yoshinori said.

“High-quality human resources training in the Japanese language will play a key role in boosting different exchanges between Japan and Việt Nam. It’s also a reason the General Consulate wishes to promote the ties with Đông Á University to contribute to Japanese-Vietnamese diplomatic ties.”

Also at the event, Heisei Company, Shidax Corporation and the Aijinkai Healthcare Group recruited 216 students from Đông Á University to work in Japan in 2021-22.

Azalee Group from Japan also inked human training co-operation deal with Sakura Kindergarten System under Đông Á University to provide Japanese standard education programmes for students in central Việt Nam and nationwide.

Japanese businesses will recruit another 450 students from the university working and studying in Japan till the end of the first quarter of 2022.

At least 2,000 students have been studying Japanese at the university.

Japanese language teaching has been taught at some junior secondary schools following the city’s foreign language teaching programme from 2012.

The first Japanese language studies and culture research faculty in the central and Central Highlands region was set up at the university.

To date, seven cities in Japan including Yokohama, Maebashi, Chiba, Fukuoka, Shizuoka and Nagasaki and 72 businesses have inked agreements on the recruitment of students from central Việt Nam, offering 6,000 job opportunities each year.

Japanese partners have provided an annual US$521,000 scholarships for students at the university since 2019.

According to the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), 68 per cent of surveyed Japanese businesses in Việt Nam wanted to implement shared research or surveys and human resources exchanges with universities in Việt Nam. — VNS