Hanoi - Australia will help Vietnam improve rural
electricity supplies and advance higher education, Australian Foreign
Minister Stephen Smith announced during his two-day visit to Vietnam.
Foreign Minister Smith pledged 3.5 million Australian dollars
(3.35 million US dollars) to Vietnam to improve the reliability and
efficiency of electricity supplies to rural communities and support
three local power companies to adapt to power sector reforms.
The funds are part of a $30-million-Australian-dollar energy aid
project to Mekong countries - Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia - that
Australia will disperse through the World Bank over the next four
years.
During his meeting with Prime Minster Dung Wednesday, Minister
Smith said Australia is making education a focus of its assistance to
the Southeast Asian country.
'In the development assistance area, Australia has a 100-million-
dollar program a year for Vietnam and we are looking at further
infrastructure,' Foreign Minister Smith told local media after the
meeting.
'But also, importantly, we are looking at education and increasing
the number of scholarships that Australia offers to young Vietnamese
students wanting to study at university at graduate and postgraduate
level.
'So we see education, enhancing the education links, as being very
important.'
There are more than 9,700 Vietnamese students currently studying
in Australia and thousands studying locally at Australian-funded
institutions, local media reported.
Australia committed 93.1 million Australian dollars in official
development assistance capital to Vietnam this year, making Vietnam
its fourth largest aid recipient.
During the two-day visit the two sides agreed to increase
cooperation in regional and multilateral forums alongside discussing
negotiations of a free trade agreement between the ASEAN, Australia
and New Zealand.
The visit by the Australian Foreign Affairs Minister, the first
visit by a minister of the new government, was made to boost
bilateral ties and mark 35 years of diplomatic relations between the
two countries.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story