Australian General-Governor Quentin Bryce emphasised this at a meeting with Le Hoang Quan, chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, on May 12.

Bryce expressed her delight at Vietnam’s efforts to reduce poverty rates under Australia-funded projects, especially targeted towards children.

Chairman Quan spoke highly of the fine cooperation between the city and Australia, especially in the fields of science and technology, tourism, education and training. Over the past 10 years, he said RMIT University has trained about 10,000 Vietnamese students.

He added that Ho Chi Minh City was the first Vietnamese locality to have signed a cooperation agreement with an Australian partner, firstly with the State of Queensland, during Quentin Bryce’s term of office.

Ho Chi Minh City has sent about 1,000 officials to Australia for training and attracted about 90 investment projects from Australian businesses worth over US$500 million, Quan said.

The same day, the Australian leader visited RMIT University and Ho Chi Minh City Medicine and Pharmacy University, which is coordinating with Queensland University of Technology to run a training course for nurses.

She said they are good models for bilateral cooperation aimed at helping Vietnam raise the quality of university education as well as training human resources in the medical sector.