Ambassador Prasanna Gamage met with President Associate Professor Bui Anh Tuan and Vice President Pham Thu Huong and other senior officials of the Foreign Trade University (FTU) of Vietnam in Hanoi on January 22 to discuss and explore possibilities of future cooperation between the FTU and higher education institutions in Sri Lanka.
The FTU, which was established in 1960, is a highly reputed public higher education institute in Vietnam. It has three campuses in Vietnam, currently with 19,000 students and 18 undergraduate and postgraduate academic programmes.
The FTU also has 22 very rich and attractive international joint academic programmes with universities from Australia, Japan, South Korea, UK, USA, Singapore, India, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Canada and Thailand, etc.
Another of the most striking features of the FTU is its international student exchange programme, which is attended by approximately 600 students annually.
Ambassador Gamage and Associate Professors Tuan and Houng had a comprehensive communication on the education systems of the two countries and possibilities for future cooperation in the form of student exchanges and joint programmes.
The FTU academics stated that they would be extremely glad to establish such initiatives with Sri Lankan higher education institutes. Both Ambassador Gamage and Associate Prof. Tuan agreed to place the processes regarding such cooperation as a matter of priority.
Deputy Directors of International Office of the FTU, Dr. Bui Duy Linh and Dao Ha assisted Associate Professor – Tuan, Huong, Third Secretary/Commercial – Prasadi Boomawalage, and Interpreter of the Embassy – Hoa Dang accompanied by Ambassador Gamage during the meeting.
