BHUBANESWAR: India's Consul General in Vietnam Madan Mohan Sethi on Thursday called on Indian universities for collaborative opportunities in education and student-faculty exchange programmes. Addressing senior functionaries of Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) University here, he said there is a big scope for Indian and Vietnamese universities for collaboration in various fields, including education and research.
“Ho Chi Minh City itself is home to around 50 universities and an equal number of institutions of higher education. There is ample scope for tie-ups with renowned universities for student-faculty exchange and research collaboration,” Sethi said. With the sizing equivalent to Rajasthan, Vietnam has great economic potential and its GDP would be three times of the north Indian State, he said and added that Vietnam’s booming hospitality industry attracts around 30 million foreign tourists annually which is far more than the visitors to India.
India’s relationship with Vietnam, the Consul General said, is ancient and there are cultural links between the two countries. India had contributed towards the creation of Vietnam as a nation, he said.“Vietnam had progressed much in the field of agriculture, horticulture, pisciculture and food processing while its electronic industry was doing very well. About 70 per cent of the mobile phones coming to India are manufactured there,” Sethi said.
He also called on SOA’s Founder President Prof Manojranjan Nayak and they exchanged their views. SOA’s Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof Pradipta Kumar Nanda made a brief presentation about SOA University. Director of University Outreach Programme Prof. Nachieketa K Sharma, Dean (Students’ Welfare) Prof Jyoti Ranjan Das and Controller of Examination Prof Manjula Das also spoke.