VIETNAMESE AND CHINESE UNIVERSITIES PULL TOGETHER TO PROMOTE STRONG TIES

Delegates from 12 universities in the Honghe (or Hong Song in Vietnamese) River area - six from Southwest China's Yunnan province and six from northern Vietnam - have agreed to extend cooperation, marking a new era for the interschool collaboration in the region.

From Jan 9 to 11, the Forum of Presidents of Universities in Honghe River Area held at Mengzi, the capital of Honghe Hani and Yi autonomous prefecture in southern Yunnan, covered topics such as credit recognition, joint research and student exchanges among the universities.

About 200 delegates, mostly from international cooperation departments at the universities, said the Honghe River shares important origins in ethnic cultures. The Honghe is the downstream section of what Yunnan people call Yuanjiang River in Honghe prefecture, running through an area of 775,000 square km with a population of about 50 million.

In October, after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Vietnam, the two countries announced a comprehensive and strategic partnership, establishing closer ties in agriculture, technology, culture, sports, tourism and healthcare.

Currently, more than 13,000 Vietnamese students attend 100 Chinese universities, while more than 3,000 Chinese students are learning Vietnamese or studying other subjects in the neighboring country.

Chen Yongming, Party secretary of Honghe University in Mengzi, said his school has trained hundreds of Vietnamese students, and the forum will lead to greater cooperation among schools in the region that started in 1992.

Song Guangxing, deputy director of Yunnan's Department of Education, said a mechanism of inter-university exchanges needs to be established to increase the competitiveness and influence of universities in the Honghe River area.

Honghe prefecture has been promoting trade with Vietnam, with Hokou national entry point most renowned for its strong Vietnamese presence and trade in agricultural goods and industrial products such as machinery and fertilizers.

Gan Xuechun, president of Honghe University, said the prefecture and his university have an unmatchable geographic advantage to interact with Vietnamese officials, students and business people.

Qi Jianguo, deputy president of China-Vietnam Friendship Association and former Chinese ambassador to Vietnam, said China and Vietnam have demarcated the border in Yunnan and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and offshore in the Beibu Gulf.

Qi said Li's visit had led to an increase in the level of educational exchanges between the two countries, and that China will offer 15,000 government-sponsored scholarships to Vietnamese students over the next five years.

Do Tien Sam, editor-in-chief of the Chinese Studies Review under the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences, said the global community is getting more diverse and facing new challenges, especially after the financial crisis in 2008. Increased trade protectionism since then has made things particularly difficult for export-oriented economies, Do said. Political mistrust among major powers in the world may also increase the possibility of confrontation and crisis.

However, China and Vietnam have many things in common, such as political structure and traditions, Do said. Vietnam is striving to build an industrialized country and China will rise to be a moderately prosperous nation by 2020, during which time the two export-oriented economies will face income disparities and loss of ethnic cultures.

After a hiatus in bilateral relations, top leaders of China and Vietnam visited each other last year. The two countries have agreed to establish three working groups related to onshore, financial and maritime issues. Do said both countries can learn from each other's policies and experience in coping with the challenges.

Nguyen Van Khanh, president of Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Vietnam National University, was confident about cooperation in Honghe River basin.

“Past decades saw a complete chain of cultural connection in the Honghe River area, further connecting northern Vietnam, Kunming (provincial capital of Yunnan) and Chengdu (provincial capital of Sichuan),” Nguyen said.

The Trans-Asia Railway, which is being built and is expected to start operating next year, will provide Southwest China a shorter route to the sea, he said. Meanwhile, the expressway connecting Kunming to the border county of Hekou in Honghe prefecture will form part of a highway network, with one from Hai Phong City to Lao Cai province in northern Vietnam, he said.

"All these elements working together will facilitate the cooperation between Chinese and Vietnamese universities."

Nguyen suggested that the universities at the forum carry out more research on the Honghe River to prevent drought and floods, and to fully utilize water resources in upstream and downstream areas.

Li Yingqing and Guo Anfei contributed to the story.

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