Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung urges acceleration of int’l port project in Hai Phong

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked Hai Phong authorities and relevant agencies to do their best to start the construction of the Lach Huyen international port on schedule, ensuring that it can become operational in 2016.

PM Dung inspects the construction site of the port in Lach Huyen, Cat Hai district

Dung made the request while meeting with Hai Phong leaders during his visit to inspect the construction site of the port in Lach Huyen, Cat Hai district on July 26.

The first phase of the project was approved by the Ministry of Transport with a total investment of over 22 trillion VND (over 1 billion USD). In this phase, the project will build two wharves capable of accommodating 100,000 DWT vessels, breakwaters, roads, and electricity and water infrastructure.

The municipal leaders said the city has instructed Cat Hai district to focus on site clearance to ensure the progress of the project.

PM Dung spoke highly of Hai Phong’s comprehensive socio-economic development results in the first half of the year despite difficulties in the domestic and world economies.

He instructed the city to give priority to removing difficulties for industrial development while helping businesses, especially those involving in construction materials and shipbuilding, to expand markets and access capital sources.

Hai Phong should make the most of its advantages to develop industrial and economic zones as well as speed up infrastructure development to lure investment projects with high technological content, he noted.

The Government leader asked the ministries and agencies to take measures to help boost Hai Phong’s development in the remaining months of the year, focusing on infrastructure projects such as the Hanoi-Hai Phong Expressway and a project to dredge the Hai Phong Port.

According to the municipal People’s Committee, in the first six months of 2012, Hai Phong recorded a GDP growth of 6.81 percent, 1.55 times higher than the country’s rate./.

Source VNA

Vietnam uncovers new evidence that islands do not belong to China

Vietnam uncovers new evidence that islands do not belong to China Evidence was found in a historical map. The map's accuracy in terms of longitude and latitude is nearly on par with modern maps. -Tuoi Tre News  Tue, Jul 24, 2012 Tuoi Tre News A Han-Chinese map of China published by Shanghai Publishing House in 1904 reveals that China stretched as far south as Hainan Island, and that Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands did not belong to China. After holding it for 30 years, Dr. Mai Hong, former head of the Library of the Institute for the Study of Chinese and Demotic Scripts and Cultures, has decided to release the historical evidence. Hong recently sat down with Tuoi Tre for an interview about the map: How did you get this map? I got this map when I administered a library of Chinese and Demotic Script books (now Institute for the Study of Chinese and Demotic Scripts and Cultures) in 1977. At that time, collecting maps was not our administrative function. However, to my surprise, an elderly man who often sold books to us showed up at our office one day and recommended I buy this map. I spent one month's salary to purchase it without my family's knowledge. Is it a valuable map made a long time ago? Yes, it is. It's a color-coded paper map that has a carton-paper cover and can be opened like a book. Inside the map, there are more than 35 pieces - each measured at 20cm wide, 30cm long - stuck on canvas. Because I can read Han-Chinese, I've translated about 600 Han-Chinese words into Vietnamese that adequately represents the origin and date of the map. According to the translation, the map was created across nearly two decades (1708 - 1904), from the Kangxi Emperor who ruled China from 1661 - 1722 to the Guangxu Emperor from 1875 to 1908. The emperors asked many clergymen and gifted astronomers and mathematicians to make this map. More specifically, in 1708, King Kangxi recruited some western clergymen to draw the map of the Great Wall. In 1711, the King continued to ask the clergymen to survey lands in 13 provinces nationwide. After that, Chinese intellectuals and western clergymen worked together for nearly 200 years to finish this map. Among famous western clergymen helping King Kangxi with the map were Matteo Bicci from Italy, Joannes Adam Schall Von Bell from Germany, and Ferdinandus Verbiest from Belgium. In 1904, Shanghai Publishing House printed this map and distributed it to all provinces of the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China ruling from 1644 to 1912. The introduction of the map was written by the director of a Chinese observatory. Click on thumbnail to view (Photos: Viet Dung ) What is some helpful historical data from this map? In this map, the director of a Chinese observatory greatly appreciated achievements by western clergymen, who were at the time ahead of China in the field of astronomy and mathematics. As the map indicates, there are no photos, drawings or surveys of Truong Sa or Hoang Sa islands on the map. The Chinese themselves also admitted that Hainan Island was the end of their land to the south. Why did you decide to release this map? In my opinion, this map will provide some helpful evidence that helps Vietnam get more active in resolving disputes with China over the ownership of the two islands in the East Sea. This is also helpful data for local scholars or researchers who are studying the seas and the islands' sovereignty. Official map According to Pham Hoang Quan, a local researcher on Han-Chinese and Demotic Scripts, the map, measuring 115cm long and 140cm wide, was printed on separate sheets and belonged to a group of large-scale maps. Quan added that during the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were only 60 maps of this kind. The map's accuracy in terms of longitude and latitude is nearly on par with modern maps. This map was made by experts at the Observatory of the Qing Dynasty, so it can be considered official, he said. The information in this article was contributed by Tuoi Tre News. For more information, visit the website http://www.tuoitrenews.vn/

The End of the Vietnamese Miracle

So much for the next Asian success story.

BY GEOFFREY CAIN | JULY 11, 2012

HO CHI MINH CITY – In what was once one of Asia's most exciting emerging markets, Nguyen Van Nguyen sees only gloom ahead. Since 2008, his business in southern Vietnam's economic capital has suffered through two volatile bouts of inflation, peaking in August 2011 at 23 percent -- at the time, Asia's highest inflation rate. Now he's only accepting small overseas orders for Binh Minh, his once-thriving bamboo-screen factory in Ho Chi Minh City, to hedge against price fluctuations. He says customers in Australia, Europe, and the United States have decreased their orders following weakening global demand. Production costs across the industry have risen approximately 30 percent while customers are only willing to pay about 10 percent more, says Dang Quoc Hung, vice president of Association for Handicraft and Wood Industry in Ho Chi Minh City. Nguyen's hiring fewer workers for the summer high season and cutting their pay to about $120 a month, down from $200. "We can only work at a slow speed, and things are hard now," he lamented in late June. 

The Communist Party of Vietnam would prefer that investors see cases like Nguyen's as simply one-off local effects of the global economic slowdown, not of a systemic weakening. In the two decades since the Communist Party instituted economic reforms in 1986, annual GDP growth averaged a remarkable 7.1 percent. Indeed, four years ago, Vietnam seemed like the next Asian success story. Before joining the World Trade Organization in 2007, the country's leaders pledged to do even better, speeding up a vast restructuring and privatization of their wasteful state-owned enterprises (SOEs), a process they euphemistically called "equitization." The International Monetary Fund predictedin 2007 that cheaper imports as a result of WTO accession could contain inflation, and that structural reforms could level the playing field between local and foreign competitors. But on Hillary Clinton's visit to the capitol Hanoi earlier this week, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was forced onto the defensive, promising favorable conditions for foreign investors as he tries to keep the "Vietnam miracle" alive.

Over the past decade, rising labor costs in China meant that its days as the factory of the world werenumbered. Stable Vietnam, with its young, cheap workforce and serviceable infrastructure, seemed like the logical next choice. Foreign investment poured in throughout the mid-2000s, with net inflows more than tripling to $9.6 billion in 2008 from two years earlier. Vietnam was the "next Asian tiger in the making," said Goldman Sachs. "Foreign investors didn't care about governance or policy. They were driven by low labor costs," says Edmund Malesky, a political economist at the University of California at San Diego who focuses on Vietnam.

Ignoring the politics, it turned out, was a costly oversight. Few businesspeople predicted the Vietnam of 2012: a country struggling with a weak currency, inflation, red tape, and cronyism that has led to billions of dollars of waste -- and home to a government that makes decisions like building oddly placed ports or roads that serve little economic value.

Things started to turn south when Vietnam embarked on a $100 billion expansion in the domestic credit stock from 2007 to 2010, a program accelerated by the 2008 economic crisis. Instead of being directed towards private businesses, the government channeled the funds to politically connected SOEs, who used them to expand fervently into areas outside of their expertise, creating an increased demand for resources that fedinflation. Flush with cash, they were able to drive out smaller, more efficient competitors. The massive state-run shipbuilder Vinashin, which employed some 60,000 workers and oversaw 28 shipyards, diversified into almost 300 units, including motorbike manufacturing and hotels, after it raised an additional $1 billion from international investors in 2007. Officials hoped it would drive growth like South Korea's semi-public conglomerates.

But in 2010, Vinashin was found to be falsifying its financial reports, and it nearly collapsed under $4.4 billion worth of debt owed to both local and international creditors, a number equivalent to almost 5 percent of GDP. It eventually defaulted on a $400 million loan arranged by Credit Suisse. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung -- who backed Vinashin as his pet project central to the state-run economy -- was forced to apologize before the National Assembly during a painful self-criticism session. Dung's rivals, seeking to protect their own corporate fiefdoms and political offices, had found their scapegoat: Authorities sentenced eight executives last March. But instead of speeding up its much promised and grindingly slow process of privatization initiated in the 1990s, authorities swept the debacle under the rug.

The government went into damage-control mode, refusing to back the $400 million Credit Suisse loan as the conglomerate remained uncommunicative with European creditors. Responding to the crisis, Moody's downgraded Vietnam's sovereign credit rating one notch to B1 from Ba3, signifying a "high credit risk" below investment grade.

Other Vinashin-like breakdowns were in the works, but secretive kickback networks allowed them to cover up their failing books for years, according to several state-employed newspaper editors interviewed in 2011. In May 2012, an ongoing government investigation revealed that the state-owned shipping company Vinalines had defaulted on five loans worth $1.1 billion, andaccumulated debt of $2.1 billion, more than four times its equity. Since February, four executives have been arrested for mismanaging state resources; authorities, meanwhile, are on the hunt for its fugitive former chairman.

Foreign investors, facing higher costs of labor and materials, began to worry that Vietnam was losing its low-priced edge. Four foreign investors complained in interviews over the last 2 years that state-owned companies abused their position as government-connected industry gatekeepers. "They're a pain in the ass," said one American business lawyer in Ho Chi Minh City. "Nobody wants to deal with these guys."

While Vietnamese officials are now assuring investors that the worst is over, a government audit released in early July revealed that at least thirty other large SOEs carry worrisome debt burdens. The deeper problem is that in Vietnam, unlike in China, the Communist Party elite are paranoid about sharing the spoils with private, and especially foreign, businessmen. In China, the party has generally kept its markets competitive by bringing private businesspeople into the fold, improving governance, privatizing around 90,000 firms worth more than $1.4 trillion between 1998 and 2005, and more recently purging neo-Maoist gangsters like former Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai. Vietnamese leaders still haven't figured out how to fix their economy without relinquishing some form of political control -- a step they're unwilling to take.

Instead of cleaning up the cobwebs between SOEs and their patron politicians, the power players have launched campaigns against a new generation of nouveau riche entrepreneurs-cum-lawmakers. In late May, the National Assembly voted 96 percent in favor of ousting deputy Dang Thi Hoang Yen, one of only a few non-Communist Party tycoons in the legislature on trumped up charges of lying on her resume.

Yen's real crime: repeatedly calling for fair treatment of private businesses, which comprise nearly half of the economy. "To clean the house is more than the system can handle," says David Brown, a former American diplomat in Hanoi.

In June, the government's tightening of credit helped bring down inflation from 23 percent last August to 6.9 percent. The problem now, complain small factory owners like Nguyen, is that the flood of easy credit has increased the chances of a banking crisis. After two devastating SOE collapses, the government is admitting that something might be fundamentally wrong with its financial system. The country's central bank head Nguyen Van Binh said in early June that about 10 percent of debt at Vietnamese banks is bad. Instead of reforming the economy, the government is suggesting more of the same: One plan is to create a national asset-management agency with $4.8 billion to deal with the debts. But that would mean setting up yet another bureaucracy caught within the patronage networks between the party elites, banks, and companies.

Investors already complain about being overburdened with red tape, and a lot of them are now thinking about moving to Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, said Denny Cowger, a corporate lawyer at Duane Morris, an American law firm with offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. In the World Economic Forum's Global Competitive Report for 2011 and 2012, Vietnam fell six places to number 65, due to  burdensome regulations, inflation, budget deficits, and strained infrastructure )it commended the country for a fairly efficient labor market and "innovation potential").

The state sector, meanwhile, continues to gobble up as much as 40 percent of GDP. "The bottom line is that Vietnam must undertake some fundamental domestic economic reforms to remain competitive," said Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales. "It is more likely that Vietnam's leaders will use the global financial crisis as an excuse for more of the same."

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/07/11/the_end_of_the_vietnamese_miracle?page=full 

Vietnam demands English language teaching 'miracle'

All school leavers will have a minimum level of English by 2020 under ambitious education reforms, but teachers fear that they are not getting the help they need to upgrade their own skills


Fanfare ... English instruction hours are expected to double under the $450m plan. Photograph: Frank Zeller/AFP/Getty Images

More than 80,000 English language teachers in Vietnam's state schools are expected to be confident, intermediate-level users of English, and to pass a test to prove it, as part of an ambitious initiative by the ministry of education to ensure that all young people leaving school by 2020 have a good grasp of the language.

As part of the strategy, which includes teaching maths in English, officials have adopted the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) to measure language competency. Teachers will need to achieve level B2 in English with school leavers expected to reach B1, a level below.

But the initiative is worrying many teachers, who are uncertain about their future if they fail to achieve grades in tests such as Ielts and Toefl.

"All teachers in primary school feel very nervous," said Nguyen Thi La, 29, an English teacher at Kim Dong Primary School in Hanoi.

"It's difficult for teachers to pass this exam, especially those in rural provinces. B2 is a high score."

"All we know is that if we pass we are OK. If we don't we can still continue teaching, then take another test, then if we fail that, we don't know."

Despite reports in state media, the education ministry maintains that no one will be sacked who does not achieve B2, equivalent to scores of between 5.0 and 6.0 in the Ielts test, in the countrywide screening.

"It's a proficiency test to identify how many teachers need government-funded language training before they can go on teacher training courses," said Nguyen Ngoc Hung, executive manager of Vietnam's National Foreign Languages 2020 Project.

"No teachers will be sacked if they are not qualified because we already know most of them are not qualified. No teachers will be left behind and the government will take care of them. But if the teachers don't want to improve, then parents will reject them because only qualified teachers will be able to run new training programmes."

Project 2020 will affect 200 million students and 85% the $450m budget will be spent on teacher training, according to the education ministry.

Officials say proficiency equivalent to B2 is necessary so that English teachers can read academic papers, which will contribute to their professional development.

The state media recently reported that in the Mekong Delta's Ben Tre province, of 700 teachers who had been tested, only 61 reached the required score. In Hue, in central Vietnam, one in five scored B2 or higher when 500 primary and secondary teachers were screened with tests tailored by the British Council.

In the capital, Hanoi, teachers are taking the Ielts test and 18% have so far made the B2 grade. The education ministry said that in one province, which could not be identified, the pass rate is as low as one in 700.

So far testing has been voluntary. Candidates are required to provide certificates from test aligned to the CEFR, such as Ielts, Cambridge Esolexams and Toefl.

Some trainers think that the B2 level need not be an obstacle for many teachers, but they say pay incentives are needed if the government is to retain teachers and find 24,000 more to meet its 2020 education targets.

"B2 is achievable enough. The teachers I know want to improve their English but want their salaries to be higher so that they can have an incentive to try harder to meet the standard," said Tran Thi Qua, a teacher trainer from the education department in Hue.

Education ministry officials say they are working to increase primary English teacher salaries. Some parents of primary-aged children are prepared to give their children's English teachers extra money.

"My biggest worry is where and how my children will learn English. There is a huge demand for English teaching at state primary schools. I have to spend lots of time and money now to give my children an English language education," said Do Thi Loan, a mother of two from Hanoi.

"The government needs to fund courses to help improve the quality of the teachers, and pay them more money, but I think if teachers don't want to improve, then they should change jobs," she said.

A new languages-focused curriculum delivered by retrained teachers should be in place in 70% of grade-three classes by 2015, according to ministry plans, and available nationwide by 2019. English teaching hours are set to double and maths will be taught in a foreign language in 30% of high schools in major cities by 2015.

But according to one language development specialist, the education ministry's goals are unrealistic.

Rebecca Hales, a former senior ELT development manager at British Council Vietnam, said: "The ministry is taking a phased approach, which is commendable, but there are issues with supply and demand. They don't have the trained primary English teachers. The targets are completely unachievable at the moment."

According to Hales the British Council has been instrumental in the training 2,000 master trainers, but she doubts that local education authorities are willing to put money into spreading those skills further.

"The teacher trainers we trained up are now at the mercy of the individual education departments. There's no evidence at this stage of a large-scale teacher training plan," Hales said.

Nguyen Ngoc Hung asserts that a training strategy is in place, but acknowledges the scale of the project.

"I have invested in universities and colleges from different regions, sent their teachers to the UK and Australia, and turned them into teacher development centres that will reach out to train people in remote provinces," Nguyen said.

"There are many challenges. We are dealing with everything, from training, salaries and policy, to promotion, how to train [teachers] then keep them in the system. I'm not sure if [Project 2020] will be successful. Other countries have spent billions on English language teaching in the private sector but still governments have been very unhappy with the outcomes."

Ed Parks is a pseudonym for a journalist working in Vietnam
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/nov/08/vietnam-unrealistic-english-teaching-goals

U.S.-ASEAN Business Forum Strengthens Economic Ties

POSTED BY VICTOR DUNCAN / JULY 13, 2012

http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/asean_business_forum_economic_ties 

Victor Duncan serves as an intern in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Office of Public Diplomacy. He is a graduate student who served in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Carl Vinson.

On July 13, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Siem Reap, Cambodia, to meet with 200 senior government officials and business leaders from the United States and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries at the "Commitment to Connectivity: The U.S.-ASEAN Business Forum" conference. The event was hosted by the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The conference brought together public and private sector leaders to address opportunities and challenges that will shape the direction of U.S.-ASEAN economic cooperation. The conference is part of the State Department's ongoing commitment toEconomic Statecraft and supporting U.S. businesses abroad.

With the participation of high-level U.S. government officials, ASEAN, and representatives from American businesses ranging from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to large companies that are well established in the region, the forum crafted recommendations for strengthening ASEAN's global competitiveness and enhancing ties between U.S. and ASEAN business communities. Business leaders and policymakers discussed the challenges to developing a regionally-integrated and globally-connected ASEAN Economic Community.

Speaking at a plenary dinner, Secretary Clinton underscored the economic dimension of U.S. engagement in Asia. The Secretary reaffirmed our commitment to economic engagement with ASEAN through public-private partnerships, diplomacy, trade-openness, and development. Promoting U.S. exports and investment in the Asia-Pacific has been a focus of the Secretary's trip.

The conference comes just two days after the Secretary's announcement of the Asia Pacific Strategic Engagement Initiative (APSEI), a significant advance in U.S. engagement with the Asia-Pacific region that will promote regional stability, support sustainable development, and foster an inclusive regional economy that will benefit our shared future. With economic integration and trade as a key pillar of the initiative, APSEI played a central role in contributing to the outcome of the conference by strengthening prospects for increased U.S.-ASEAN cooperation.

The Secretary's speech and the participation of U.S. officials and business representatives in the conference demonstrate recognition of the growing importance of Asia to the global economy and the State Department's restructuring of international engagement accordingly, where U.S.-ASEAN commercial relationships play a critical role.

Secretary Clinton is on travel to France, Afghanistan, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Egypt, and Israel. You can follow her trip on www.state.gov.

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Wood export target set too high

HA NOI — Viet Nam saw an increase in the value of wood products exported for the first half of this year, but commentators don't expect the nation will hit its target of US$4.6 billion exports for this year.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said the nation had a year-on-year increase of 25.9 per cent in export value of wood products to $2.3 billion.

During the first six months of this year, the export value of Vietnamese wood products surged by 35.3 per cent to China, 32.3 per cent to the US and 25.5 per cent to Japan against the same period last year.

Workers craft wooden furniture at a company in Ha Noi's Thuong Tin District. Although the wood export value increased in the first six months, the country would face difficulties reaching its target of $4.6 billion this year. — VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Hue

However, Viet Nam's wood product exporters still faced many difficulties, including impacts of the world economic downturn, technical barriers in import nations, high input costs and low competitive ability, said the ministry.

This year, demand on wood products in the EU market – accounting for 44 per cent of total wood imports in the world market – was expected to drop due to the economic downturn.

Vietnamese wood products exported to the US and EU must meet strict regulations on origin of wood and products.

Therefore, to gain the yearly target, exporters must look for new markets in the Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and South America where demands for the products remained high, the ministry said. Meanwhile, exporters said they expected ministries to come up with solutions to rising input costs or they would lose their customers. — VNS

Clinton Talks Economy, Education with Top Vietnamese Leaders Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2012/07/201207108793.html#ixzz20Oh8Kis0

By MacKenzie C. Babb | Staff Writer | 10 July 2012

Washington — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is working with government officials, private-sector leaders and civil society representatives in Vietnam to build stronger economic, security and people-to-people ties with the growing East Asian power.

“We’re working on everything from maritime security and nonproliferation to public health and disaster relief to promoting trade and economic growth,” Clinton said at a joint news conference with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh July 10. She said that during their meeting they also discussed their shared interest in deepening cultural, educational and economic ties.

Clinton said trade and investment between the United States and Vietnam has increased “from practically nothing” when the two countries established formal diplomatic relations in 1995 to more than $22 billion today. Since 2010 alone, bilateral trade has grown by more than 40 percent.

The secretary said the United States and Vietnam are working with other partners to continue to expand this growth “through a far-reaching new regional trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would lower trade barriers while raising standards on everything from labor conditions to environmental protection to intellectual property.”

She said the agreement is set to benefit all participating countries.

“In fact, economists expect that Vietnam would be among the countries under the Trans-Pacific Partnership to benefit the most,” Clinton said. She expressed hope the agreement will be finalized in 2012.

The secretary said that setting higher standards, as required by the new partnership, will be critical to supporting Vietnam’s continued development and transition to a 21st-century entrepreneurial economy as it will support the free exchange of ideas and strengthen the rule of law and respect for the universal rights of workers.

“I know there are some who argue that developing economies need to put economic growth first and worry about political reform and democracy later, but that is a short-sided bargain,” Clinton said. “Democracy and prosperity go hand in hand, political reform and economic growth are linked, and the United States wants to support progress in both areas.”

The secretary told reporters that in talks with her Vietnamese counterpart, she raised concerns about human rights, including the continued detention of activists, lawyers and bloggers for the peaceful expression of opinions and ideas.

Additionally, the two discussed expanding economic ties through new business partnerships. Clinton, who was joined by a U.S. business delegation, visited the American Chamber of Commerce while in Hanoi to meet with American and Vietnamese business leaders and to witness the signing of new private-sector partnerships.

The United States is Vietnam’s largest market for exports and the seventh-largest foreign investor in Vietnam. Clinton said the United States is committed to expanding these ties, and American business is eager to invest more in Vietnam and throughout the Asia Pacific.

“It’s one of the top priorities of the Obama administration,” she said. “The United States is, after all, an enduring Pacific power with Pacific interests, and we intend to be a presence in the Pacific region for the foreseeable future.”

Clinton said this focus on investing in the region, and in Vietnam in particular, is mutually beneficial. New U.S. business projects in Vietnam can help the country overcome development challenges and fuel economic development while supporting jobs in America.

“This is a win-win,” she said.

Clinton also addressed the importance of deepening cultural, educational and people-to-people ties while in Hanoi through talks with Vietnamese leaders and by participating in the 20th anniversary of the return of the Fulbright Program in Vietnam.

She said the program has already transformed the lives of 8,000 American and Vietnamese students, scholars, educators and business people and produced many remarkable leaders in both countries. The secretary said the United States is looking to do more to increase the number of educational exchanges and build lasting connections between the people of both countries.

Clinton said the United States is also hoping to send Peace Corps volunteers to Vietnam in the near future to continue to support the country’s development and growth.

The secretary’s visit to Vietnam comes as part of a global tour that has also included stops in France, Japan and Mongolia. She is scheduled to visit Laos, Cambodia, Egypt and Israel before departing for Washington July 17.