Plan to lure 1,000 Vietnamese doctoral students

BY KAZUTO TSUKAMOTO THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Japan plans to accept more than 1,000 students from Vietnam to help them earn their doctorates at Japanese universities in a project funded through official development assistance in the 13 years from fiscal 2008, sources said.

The two countries are expected to conclude a formal agreement on the project costing Japan more than 20 billion yen during a visit here by Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, who doubles as minister of education and training, in late March, the sources said.

Both governments are seeking to become strategic partners, according to a senior Foreign Ministry official.

The Vietnam War, which ended in 1975, left that country in chaos and robbed many people in later generations of the chance to earn higher academic degrees.

Japan, for its part, hopes the plan will attract talented students from abroad to fill space at schools left unfilled because of Japan's lower birthrate.

While yen loans have paid for a total of 3,000 students to arrive from Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, this will be the first project to fund doctoral students only.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Vietnam expects the students to major in engineering and other science disciplines. The country is placing priority on advanced technologies in the fields of information technology, mechanical engineering, materials and nanotechnology, as well as agriculture, shipbuilding and medicine.

Japan already accepts about 25 students a year from Vietnam funded by Japanese government grants, and the government plans gradually to expand that number from fiscal 2008.

The Vietnamese doctoral students will be invited to attend the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Waseda University, Keio University, Ritsumeikan University and the Nagaoka University of Technology, among other schools, the sources said.

In 1986, Vietnam, a socialist republic, shifted to a policy of economic reform and openness, called doi moi (renovation).

In 2007, Vietnam boasted a high economic growth rate of 8.5 percent. But much of its intelligentsia fled the country during and after the war, and it still lacks people with high levels of education. It has only about 6,000 Ph.D. holders.

Last year, Nhan launched a long-term project to assist 20,000 Vietnamese to earn doctorates by 2020.

Nhan expects that about half will study in Japan, the United States, Europe and elsewhere. Japan hopes to deepen bilateral ties by providing education chances to young, talented Vietnamese who will contribute also to Japanese society, officials said.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's strategy to stimulate economic growth aims at expanding flows of funds and people in and out of Japan. His goal is to raise the number of foreign students here from about 120,000 in the current fiscal year to 300,000.(IHT/Asahi: March 3,2008)