HÀ NỘI — Irish Aid will grant 578,000 euros (US$685,000 ) to support ten partnerships between Irish and Vietnamese higher education institutions on teaching and research co-operation during 2017-2018.

The partnerships were launched on Thursday under the Việt Nam-Ireland Bilateral Education Exchange (VIBE) Programme which aims to encourage co-operation and research links between higher education and research institutions of the two contries.

Under the programme, during 2016-2017, five such partnerships were granted about 250,000 euros.

Minister of Education and Training Phùng Xuân Nhạ and Minister of Education and Skills of Ireland Richard Bruton who is on a working visit to Việt Nam from November 23-25, attended the launch ceremony.

They also discussed potential co-operation opportunities in education between the two countries, especially those relating to higher education.

Nhạ said that Việt Nam wanted to change the structure of its economy from labour-intensive to a service-based one, so it was in need of high quality human resources.

However, Nhạ admitted that Việt Nam’s higher education quality was not good enough and its students faced difficulties after graduating from universities because of a lack of skills desired by employers.

Assistance from other countries with high-quality higher education like Ireland would be very useful to Việt Nam, he said.

Minister Richard Bruton said that Irish higher education institutions are strong in fields such as technology and applied research, implying that Ireland and Việt Nam had huge potential co-operation.

Over the last ten years, as many as 219 Vietnamese students have been offered scholarships from the Government of Ireland Scholarship Programme. In Ireland, Vietnamese students usually study Finance and Economics, Pharmaceuticals, Management, Engineering, Marketing and Computer and Data Science.

Before his visit to Việt Nam, he said: “Increasing international cooperation is a key objective under my Action Plan for Education, which aims to make Ireland’s education and training service the best in Europe within a decade, and our International Education Strategy. I am looking forward to increasing opportunities for Irish students to travel to Vietnamese and South Korean higher level institutions, by strengthening and building partnerships with institutions in these countries. By building these bilateral relationships, we can ensure mutual benefit for both the institutions and students alike.” — VNS