Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hosts delegation of U.S. universities

The event drew the attendance of Vietnamese Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son, Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung, and U.S. Ambassador to Viet Nam Marc E. Knapper.

IAPP is jointly hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Viet Nam, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, and the U.S. Institute of International Education to create new partnerships and strengthen academic collaboration among U.S. universities and their Vietnamese counterparts.

During the five-day tour to Viet Nam, the U.S. delegation explore Viet Nam's higher education landscape through campus visits, networking events, and meetings with government and private sector stakeholders.

Participating institutions from the U.S. include Stanford University, Duke University, and Rutgers University.

Vietnamese universities participating in the program include several institutions under the Viet Nam National University (International University, University of Information Technology, and University of Science), as well as the National Economics University and VinUniversity.

Addressing the event, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that Viet Nam is striving for a GDP growth rate of 8 percent in 2025 in a bid to create momentum for a period of double-digit growth in the following years.

The country has identified science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation as breakthrough and new driving force for national development while private sector serves as the most crucial driver of economic growth. In this context, education and training play an extremely important role, he added.

The cooperation between Vietnamese and U.S. universities has been on the rise for many years with outstanding achievements.

He took the occasion to call upon universities from both countries to closely coordinate in developing long-term, sustainable, practical, and effective cooperation plans.

The Prime Minister also suggested that the U.S. consider expanding scholarship programs and tuition incentives for Vietnamese students and researchers.

Several American corporations such as Intel, NVIDIA, and Apple have been exploring investment opportunities and expanding their ecosystems in Viet Nam, said Pham, calling on on universities from both nations to proactively engage in discussions to establish specific cooperation programs, particularly in high-tech fields such as AI, semiconductors, biotechnology, healthcare, agriculture, foreign languages, and training high-quality human resources to meet the needs of enterprises from both countries and support research and development.

The Prime Minister also highlighted Viet Nam's ongoing efforts to balance trade between the two countries and maintain sustainable economic cooperation through various measures. These include reducing tariffs on U.S. key export products such as wood and agricultural goods, increasing imports of products such as aircraft, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and high-tech goods, facilitating investment opportunities for U.S. businesses in Viet Nam, and addressing U.S. concerns in trade relations.

The Prime Minister also urged the senior university leaders to raise voice so that the U.S. administration would recognize Viet Nam as a market economy, lift restrictions on high-tech exports to Viet Nam.

He was convinced that Viet Nam-U.S. education and training cooperation will contribute to promote the development of both nations and their people, strengthen the Viet Nam-U.S. Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, and promote peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region and worldwide.

More than 30,000 students from Viet Nam enrolled at U.S. education facilities in the 2023-24 academic year, collectively contributing more than US$1 billion to the U.S. economy./.