Multifaceted cooperation between Vietnam and Singapore has been strongly fostered in recent years, especially after the two countries established the strategic partnership in 2013. In addition to outstanding results in investment and trade, education cooperation is a bright spot in the two countries’ relations. Singapore has trained thousands of middle and senior officials for Vietnam and helped them improve management skills and expertise, particularly in sharing development experiences.
To date, Vietnam has sent many senior delegations to Singapore to study and learn experience in economic development. Singapore also grants a lot of scholarships for Vietnamese government employees to study at universities in Singapore.
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of Singapore is one of the best public policy schools in the world. A lot of high-level Vietnamese experts have been trained and taught in this school.
Training cooperation between Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Vietnam was started 20 years ago. Currently, the school is providing two types of training programmes, long-term and short-term, for Vietnamese students, with contents covering policymaking, public policy and public administration for students and young officials.
Civil Service College of Singapore is also a favourite education address for Vietnamese officials. Within just three years, the college trained over 400 Vietnamese senior officials in public governance, State leadership and administration, urban management, e-government and State management. Training methodology of Civil Service College of Singapore is experience sharing. Thereby, Vietnamese government officials can immediately approach Singapore’s experiences and methods to effectively execute policies by contacting and exchanging with retired leaders or incumbent leaders in the public service sector.
Besides, many families have sent their children to study in Singapore. According to an unofficial data, about 4,000 Vietnamese students are studying at different schools in Singapore, including many vocational schools. Vietnamese students in Singapore are united, study hard and achieve good academic results.
Singapore’s education and training supports for Vietnam started when the two countries normalised relations in the early 1990s. As of 2006, up to 2,500 Vietnamese people attended various forms of Singapore-funded training.
In 1996, the Vietnam - Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) was established in Binh Duong province. To train human resources in-situ for VSIP, Singapore helped Vietnam establish the Vietnam - Singapore Technical Training Centre (VSTTC) under VSIP. Training programmes and contents at VSTTC are nearly identical to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) in Singapore. VSTTC investment efficiency is very high and Vietnam hopes for more financial and expertise assistances from Singapore for VSTTC.
At the ASEAN Informal Summit in Singapore in 2000, Singapore launched the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI). In the framework of this initiative, in February 2003, the two countries founded Vietnam - Singapore Training Centre (VSTC) in Hanoi. The missions of VSTC are “opening training courses, exercises and seminars for Vietnamese officials in mutually selected subjects.” So far, hundreds of Vietnamese officials were trained by VSTC. At the 10th ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos in 2005, Singapore announced to add 28.9 million SGD for IAI to further promote official training for four new ASEAN members.
With the Singapore Scholarship Programme for ASEAN countries, hundreds of Vietnamese students are currently studying in some high schools and three public universities in Singapore. Moreover, thousands of Vietnamese students are following their self-financed education programs in Singapore private universities and facilities in cooperation with the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Furthermore, Singapore also offer many education support and cooperation programmes to Vietnam. According to experts, these programmes are very effective since they provide necessary personnel for Vietnam’s new national development strategies. Positive results in education and training cooperation are bright spots that shine the Vietnam - Singapore strategic partnership.
Quynh Chi
Vietnamese
