Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Vietnamese Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha on May 5 signed an diploma note over scholarship project for personnel development. The signing ceremony was under the witness of Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh. As per the diploma note, the Japanese government pledges a non-refundable aid worth JPY390 million ($3.6 million) to support Vietnam’s project on human resource development. The aid is expected to give Vietnamese students more opportunity to come Japan for pursuing studies, promoting the two countries’ friendship. According to Japan’s statistics, 38,882 Vietnamese students were pursuing studies in Japan in 2015. Currently, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training has signed agreements with 17 schools in Japan to support or exempt tuition fee for Vietnamese students who received scholarships from the Vietnamese government. Both governments actively have launched scholarship program for a personnel plan to train highly-qualified laborers and 1,000 Ph.D by 2020. The Japanese government offers 110 scholarships to Vietnamese students annually. (Saigon Giai Phong – Liberated Saigon May 7)
