Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, His Excellency Mr Nguyen Tan Dung, and Minister for Education and Training, His Excellency Mr Pham Vu Luan, recently attended a special event in Canberra to celebrate the friendship between Australia and Vietnam and the bonds of understanding and opportunity between our two countries being created through the New Colombo Plan.
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Steven Ciobo MP, hosted the event and introduced Prime Minister Dung and Minister Luan to four New Colombo Plan mobility students, who will be among the first to study in Vietnam under the program.
"The Australian Government's signature initiative, the New Colombo Plan, is building a deeper understanding of neighbours and building on our already substantial people-to-people links," Mr Ciobo said.
"The New Colombo Plan will lift knowledge of Vietnam and other partners in the region among young Australians.
"A generation of young Australians with an understanding of and interest in engaging the region is critical to Australia's future productivity and our pursuit of political and economic cooperation," Mr Ciobo said.
Vietnam joined the New Colombo Plan in 2015 and has already proven a popular study destination for Australian universities and their students.
This year around 161 Australian undergraduates from a range of universities and academic disciplines will travel to Vietnam to study under the New Colombo Plan.
Among them will be University of South Australia students Caitlin Breyer and Joel Edwards, and RMIT University students Nichola Papaioannou and Sally Ann Ross, who attended the event.
Caitlin and Joel will study architecture at the Hue University of Sciences, attending lectures with local students and working together in cross-institutional research teams to investigate and identify solutions for planning and development issues.
Nichola will undertake media studies at RMIT Vietnam as part of her Bachelor of Communications and Sally will study marketing and advertising at RMIT University as part of her Bachelor of Business.
The New Colombo Plan will continue to expand in 2016, offering around 100 scholarships and at least 4750 mobility grants to Australian undergraduates to live, study and undertake work placements across 38 host locations in the Indo-Pacific.