At the event, the University’s Board of Directors expressed their wish to further cooperation with the Vietnamese Embassy, and join hands with the Embassy to organise various activities in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam-Switzerland diplomatic ties in 2021.

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Vietnamese Ambassador to Switzerland Le Linh Lan (centre) at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland.

Initially, both sides should work together to hold several research cooperation activities as well as introduce Vietnam’s investment climate, cuisine and culture to Swiss enterprises and students.

Highlighting Vietnam’s successful implementation of its “dual targets”, Ambassador Lan said the country has brought the COVID-19 pandemic under control while maintaining economic growth at 2.91 percent in 2020.

She was upbeat about the cooperation between the two nations, particularly in the context that leaders of both sides want to push the signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) after nine years of negotiation.

The FTA signing in 2021 when both nations are celebrating their 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations is a significant event, serving as a locomotive for the bilateral trade and investment collaboration.

Lan believed that the complementary nature of the two economies will help Vietnam take advantage of Switzerland’s strengths in innovation and competitive capacity.

The FHNW is among five largest public universities in Switzerland, and in top 500 largest universities in Europe. The university has cooperation projects with more than 400 partners worldwide. It is running three cooperation programme with Vietnam, including the MBA-MCI programme with Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology from 2009, Swiss Innovation Challenge Vietnam from 2017, and the tripartite cooperation programme on media and response to COVID-19 with Vietnam’s Foreign Trade University and Indonesia’s Bandung Institute of Technology.

Source: VNA