Standing Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Le Thanh Liem (R) and Director General at the Finnish National Agency for Education Olli Pekka Heinonen at the meeting on August 13

Liem expressed his delight at the sounddevelopment of Vietnam-Finland relations in multiple spheres likescience-technology, education and clean energy, adding that HCM City highlyvalues Finland’s experience and strength in education and wishes to enhancebilateral ties in this regard.

He said his city always pays attention toeducational quality improvement and considers education one of the sevenbreakthroughs that will help it promote the quality of human resources to meetnew development requirements.

The official congratulated the Vietnam-FinlandInternational School, the first to apply the educational model of the Europeannation in Vietnam, on its inception in the 2019-2020 academic year.

This is an important event marking a stride inthe countries’ educational cooperation, creating conditions for Vietnamesestudents to access an advanced educational environment of the world right inHCM City, he noted.

For the time ahead, HCM City hopes to increasedelegation exchange and experience sharing in education with Finland, Liemadded.

Valuing the southern Vietnamese city’s dynamicdevelopment, Heinonen, who is on a working visit to it, thanked localauthorities’ support for the two countries’ joint educational projectsimplemented here.

He noted Finland looks forwards to HCM Cityleaders’ working visit next month and hopes that the trip will provide morechances to expand bilateral ties in this field.

The Director General of the Finnish NationalAgency for Education said his country is ready to work with HCM City and shareexperience in educational quality improvement and modern educational models.

The Vietnamese and HCM City leaders’ commitmentsto giving priorities to education show their strategic vision for nationaldevelopment, which also creates favourable conditions for Finland and Vietnam,including HCM City, to bolster collaboration in this field, he said.-VNA