At the reception, Mr Triet expressed his delight at the fine development of Vietnam-Austria relations as well as between the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training and the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research.

The State President thanked the Austrian Government and people for their assistance to Vietnam during the process of national construction and development. The Austrian Government’s ODA for Vietnam, scientific study projects and scholarships for Vietnamese students have achieved practical results, Mr Triet said.

He said he believes that Vietnam-Austria relations will be consolidated and developed constantly and that his scheduled visit to Austria this year will help strengthen cooperative relations between Vietnam and Austria.

Mr Hahn briefed Mr Triet on the outcome of his visit to Vietnam, which resulted in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training on sending Vietnamese students to large Austrian universities for doctorate training.

Austria is ready to share experience with Vietnam in the field of training and wants to send its students to Vietnam for study and research, Mr Hahn said.

The Austrian minister also praised Vietnam’s tremendous achievements over the past years and affirmed that his country will be one of the EU member countries, taking the lead in boosting cooperative relations with Vietnam.

He expressed his belief that there will be more and more Vietnamese universities taking part in the Austrian-South-East Asian University Partnership Network (ASEA-UNINET)