Mr Nhung was speaking at a symposium held in Hanoi on May 8 by the Ministry of Education and Training to discuss issues related to international cooperation and research in universities and colleges in the 2001-2006 period, as well as development orientations for 2007-2015.

The seminar was attended by more than 300 representatives from universities and colleges across the country. The participants said that the education sector should encourage overseas Vietnamese intellectuals to teach and conduct research in national universities and colleges. It is also essential to boost cooperation with foreign countries in order to fully tap potential for science and technology development, promote scientific research and train lecturers and researchers for high-technology sectors, they said.

So far, nearly 60 countries and 36 international organizations and non-governmental organizations all over the world have established cooperative relations with the Ministry of Education and Training to help boost the development of the Vietnamese education sector. Many of their joint projects on sending Vietnamese students to study abroad and receiving foreign students to study in Vietnam have paid off.

In the 2001-2006 period, more than 5,000 Vietnamese pupils, students and teachers were sent abroad to study, while nearly 5,900 foreign students came to Vietnam for the same purpose.