GOVERNMENT IN BRIEF 4/9 International leaders congratulate Viet Nam World leaders have sent congratulations to Viet Nam to mark the country's 68th National Day on September 2. These leaders include Japanese Emperor Akihito, South Korean President Park Geun Hye, German President Joachim Gauck, US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande. President Sang calls for investment in children State President Truong Tan Sang has urged agencies, schools and parents to create the best conditions for students to enable them to make contributions to the country's socio-economic development.   State President Truong Tan Sang meets students at Bui Thi Xuan High School in Da Lat City. Sang spoke yesterday (Sept 3) at an opening ceremony at Bui Thi Xuan High School in Da Lat City in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. "The Party and State have always paid special attention to education and training, considering it a top national priority," the president said. Education and training are considered strategic tools for the country's industrialisation and modernisation, Sang told teachers and students at the high school. Sang said the education sector needed urgent reform in order to generate high-quality human resources for the country. He asked teachers to improve teaching methodologies and professional skills as well as set good examples for students to follow. During the ceremony, the president presented gifts to 10 outstanding students from poor families. Sang then beat a drum to kick off the new school year. Set up 61 years ago, Bui Thi Xuan High School has met national standards, providing high-quality education services. Many graduates of the school work as managers, scientists and officials throughout the country. President's message for new academic year State President Truong Tan Sang has sent a letter to teachers, students, their parents and staff working in the education sector on the occasion of the new school year. In Viet Nam, September 5th is the start of new academic year across the country and emphases the importance the country attaches to education. In this year's message, President Sang applauded the achievements that teachers and students made during the last school year, especially those in disadvantaged remote areas and those who won prizes at international and regional contests. He emphasised that this academic year would be the first time the country had implemented the Party Central Committee's resolutions on fundamental and comprehensive reform of education and training to meet the demands of national industrialisation and modernisation in the context of developing a socialism-oriented market and global integration. He urged the whole sector to renovate managerial mechanisms, nurture a contingent of teachers and education managers and improve the quality of education. Sang also asked authorities, organisations, families and students to give more care and investment to education and training while reminding them of President Ho Chi Minh's letters to students and teachers in the 1968-69 school year in which he urged them to overcome any difficulties to study hard and reach the peak of science and technology. In Viet Nam, the school year usually starts in September and ends in May. Viet Nam has about 22.5 million students. Timor-Leste Prime Minister kicks-off visit to Vietnam Timor-Leste Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão arrived in Hanoi on September 3 for an official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of his counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung. The visit, which aims to affirm Timor-Leste’s desire to promote bilateral relations and multifaceted cooperation with Vietnam, is the second one by Gusmão. He first visited Vietnam in 2005 as President of the Timor-Leste.     Conference looks back at Vietnam-Japan 40-year ties Scholars and researchers from Vietnam and Japan reviewed the 40-year ties between the two countries and shared their outlook on the future of the relations at an international conference in Hanoi on September 3. Speaking at the event, Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Tanizaki Yasuaki stressed that the Vietnam-Japan relations are based on the mutual understanding between the two peoples. He said the two countries are expected to continue promoting their strong cooperation on the basis of mutual trust in the future, especially in the next decade. The ambassador particularly noted the need to increase the awareness of young generations of the ties and boost exchange activities between young people. The diplomat affirmed that Japan is implementing a policy to open its labour market, giving chances for Vietnamese people to work in Japan, especially in health care. Forty years after establishing diplomatic ties, Vietnam and Japan have become strategic partners, enjoying deeper and more comprehensive cooperation not only in economics but also in various new promising areas. During the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in January this year, the two governments agreed to lift up their strategic partnership to a new height and chose 2013 as the “Vietnam-Japan Friendship Year”, which opened up a new development period in bilateral ties. Addressing the conference, Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thang, Chairman of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences noted that Japan is now one of the major economic partners as well as one among the three largest export markets of Vietnam. Japan also leads other foreign investors in Vietnam in terms of investment disbursement. Japan is the largest provider of official development aid (ODA) to Vietnam, accounting for almost one third of the total foreign aid to the country. Exchanges between the two sides in culture, science-technology, education-training and human resource development have also been enhanced. During the conference, which is part of activities to mark the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Japan, participants also proposed measures to further boost the partnership between the two countries in the new period. Vietnam, Malaysia boost cooperation in key areas The Malaysian King’s forthcoming visit to Vietnam aims to step up bilateral cooperation in key areas such as economics, trade and labour towards a future strategic partnership. Malaysian King Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah and his wife will pay a State visit to Vietnam from September 5-8 at the invitation of President Truong Tan Sang. Since the Vietnam-Malaysia diplomatic ties were established in 1973, the ties of friendship and multifaceted cooperation between the two nations have grown steadily across a variety of fields. They have maintained high-level exchange visits including the most recent visit to Malaysia by President Truong Tan Sang in 2011 and Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan’s Malaysia trip in 2013 for the Global Summit of Women (GSW). Malaysia is Vietnam’s ninth biggest trade partner. Last year’s two-way trade turnover reached US$7.9 billion and hit US$3.6 billion in the first five months of 2013. Malaysia currently ranks 8th among the countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 448 projects capitalized at US$10.2 billion. Vietnam now has 9 Malaysia-based investment projects with a total capitalization of US$813 million. The two countries have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on educational cooperation under which Malaysia have provided Vietnamese students with annual scholarships for Bachelor’s and Master’s level studies. The Malaysian Government opened its labour market for Vietnam in 2002 after reaching a government-level agreement on labour cooperation. There are 80,000 Vietnamese workers living in Malaysia. Since the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) and Malaysia’s national oil company Petronas set up cooperative relations in 1991, both sides have implemented 10 cooperation projects in Vietnam with total exploited reserves of 72,000 barrel per day. They have also worked together on services, processing industry and oil and gas exploration and exploitation. Over the years, Malaysia and Vietnam signed a series of cooperation agreements including a visa exemption agreement for ordinary passport holders in 2001, a joint statement on Vietnam-Malaysia comprehensive cooperation framework in 2004 and an anti-corruption agreement in 2010. In addition, a number of MoUs on education, national defence, banking, information technology and communications (ITC) were also reached. The two countries have increased close cooperation at regional and international forums especially within ASEAN and the UN. They are coordinating joint activities marking the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties (1973-2013). Malaysian King Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah’s upcoming visit to Vietnam shows both countries’ wish to further strengthen the ties of friendship and all-round cooperation and define major orientations for future relations. Sci-technology vital for agriculture National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung yesterday (Sept 3) declared the necessity of boosting the development and application of science and technology in agricultural production to raise the value of the country's produce. Hung, who has long supported technological advancement in the sector, was speaking at a conference on the subject attended by relevant ministers and over 150 leading experts. He stated that science and technology have not been effectively utilised to develop agriculture in rural areas, and called on the participants to identify measures to end the shortcomings. Nguyen Van Bo, director of the Viet Nam Agriculture Science Institute said there was a serious lack of scientists with agricultural expertise. He argued that it was necessary to create favourable conditions for scientists to dedicate their careers to a specific area of research, rather than having them change every five years or so. Each scientific or research centre should employ and finance about 20 experts in different areas of study and support them to realise their ideas, he said, adding that these institutes should be given the freedom to allocate finances and recruit well-qualified scientists as they saw fit. Dang Kim Son, director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (Ipsard) agreed with Bo and said State-owned science centres had yet to be granted the right to decide their own staff, financial resources and research topics, leading to the failure in attracting scientists to aid the agricultural sector. Nguyen Xuan Dung, chairman of the National Assembly Committee for Science, Technology and Environment said the delay in applying solid technological theory to agricultural production had lessened its effect. Son called on leaders to do more to encourage economic sectors to participate in science and technology research and attract young people to work in rural areas. Dung agreed and said labourers in agricultural sector receive lower wages than others – often as little as VND 50,000 (US$2.3) per day, lowering the attraction of work in this field. Hung said it was necessary to apply science and technology to all agricultural production processes and form close relations between researchers, enterprises and farmers. However, it was not all doom and gloom and experts did acknowledge that technological advancements had reinvigorated cultivation, formed new breeds and seeds of crops and improved post-harvest processing techniques. Last year the agriculture sector earned more than $27 billion, equivalent to one-fifth of the export turnover. VNN/VOV/VNS/VNA