Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics: International cooperation in human resources training in new period

Keyword: international cooperation in cadre training, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics.

1. The importance of international cooperation in the field of education and training

First of all, from the successful experience of countries around the world, it is shown that focusing on human resources education and training through international cooperation is an important factor for the sustainable development of the country.

The US, as the leading nation in economy, science and technical power of the world, the use of global human intelligence is the main strategy of this country. In the prestigious American universities, there are of the lunar research programs’ engineers are Chinese. In the US, 4 out of 10 academicians are non-American.

The miraculous breakthrough of Japan was the announcement of reformation by Emperor Meiji (April 1868), which emphasized the thought of “studying abroad to build the country”. Since 1872, Japan has sent scholars and students to study and research abroad; In 1875, Japan hired 527 foreigners, including 205 technical advisors, 144 teachers, 69 administrative experts, 36 skilled workers with as high salaries as the Ministers. By 1890, Japan had 3 thousand foreign experts working as advisors to the Government. The Meiji period (1976-1911???) attracted 1,700 educational experts from developed countries to Japan to teach. Since then, they have always attached great importance to cooperation, taking advantage of the world’s grey matter to develop the country.

After the cultural revolution, China sent around 3,000 - 4,000 people to study in the US, Japan, Germany, Australia every year. From 1978 - 1995, China sent 250,000 - 300,000 people to study abroad. In 1999, the number increased to 2,300 people. Over the past 20 years, the number of Chinese people studying in developed countries has constantly raised. Currently, Chinese students account for more than 40% of international students studying in Japan and China continues to be the leading country in the number of students studying in the US.

Thus, the world’s practical experience shows that international cooperation in education and training is an important factor for the country’s development.

Second, the current impact of international situation and the integration trend requires Vietnam to expand international cooperation, with the spirit of diversifying international relations in education and training.

After the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, the world situation changed, profoundly impacted the Vietnamese revolution. Vietnam lost a place to rely on in terms of material and spiritual resources for education and training. By 1990, the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist countries had trained 6,500 Vietnamese associate doctorates, 243 doctors, 34,000 university students, 72,000 apprentices, 9,000 trainees. Since 1991, the scale and characteristic of the cooperation in education and training of Vietnam with the above-mentioned partners has decreased a lot compared to the past, forcing us to look for new partners.

Moreover, the revolution of science and technology become direct production forces, accelerate globalization and internationalization in all areas of social life. Therefore, all nations must depend on each other. Cooperation with development has become a trend of the time. In the current knowledge economy, knowledge, science, and technology are taking decisive roles. To approach the modern science and technology of the world, it is essential to promote international cooperation in education and training. Without taking advantage of achievements in science and technology, the new technology will develop and will lead us to the risk of falling behind, in which, slow down in knowledge is extremely dangerous. Therefore, the only way to avoid these problems is to expand international cooperation.

Third, the tradition of respecting the teachers and education, as well as the thought of acquiring talented people in Vietnam has become an important factor in making the country prosper. In particular, President Ho Chi Minh traveled abroad to find a way to save the country and summarized the truth: “An ignorant nation is a weak one”. Therefore, right after the birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, in the context of internal and external hostilities against the revolution, Ho Chi Minh focused on expanding international economic cooperation in terms of economy, culture, science-technology with all countries in order to absorb the scientific achievements of humanity to build and develop our nation. On November 1, 1945, on behalf of the Vietnam Cultural Association, he sent a letter to the US Secretary of State and proposed “to send a delegation of about 50 young Vietnamese to the US with the intention to establish closed cultural relationships with the American youth, as well as to promote continued research in the fields of technology, agriculture as well as other professional fields”... Thoroughly hold on his thoughts, during the process of comprehensive renovation of the country, the Party and State are always interested in expanding international cooperation in the field of education and training to develop high-quality human resources for the renovation cause.

Fourth, the Party’s consistent foreign policy of “independence, autonomy, peace, cooperation, and development; diversification and multilateralization in foreign relations; proactive in international integration; be a reliable partner and a responsible member of the international community” is to create favorable international conditions for the cause of national construction and defense, national industrialization and modernization, for the goal of turning Vietnam into a prosperous people, a strong country, and a democratic, equitable, civilized society to make a steady transition to socialism. The Party has clearly defined that expanding international cooperation in the field of education and training is a necessary need and an important factor to enhance the country’s socio-economic development. Resolution 29 at the 8th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (11th tenure) affirmed: “Proactively participate in international integration to develop education and training. At the same time, it is necessary to enhance education and training to meet the requirements of international integration to develop the country”. To implement industrialization and modernization in the context of a poor economy, lacking capital, technology, and management experience, especially when intellectual human resources have not caught up with other developed countries, we need to continue “Proactively integrate into the global education and training on the basis of maintaining independence and autonomy, ensuring the socialist orientation, preserving and promoting values and cultures of the nation, selectively absorb the cultural quintessence and human scientific and technological achievements”; to take advantage of material assistance, access to new knowledge, learn from experience, exchange knowledge to improve Vietnamese intelligence, contribute to the successful implementation of national industrialization and modernization.

2. Achievements and solutions to improve the effectiveness of international cooperation in human resources training at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics

Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics is the national center for training senior and middle-level leaders for the entire political system and Vietnamese state-owned corporations, as well as a research center on political theory, science leadership, and management of Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics has contributed significantly to the development and international integration of Vietnam through training and educating high-level human resources for the country. The Academy has cooperative relations with nearly 200 international partners of more than 60 countries and territories.

Since the early 1980s of the 20th century, international cooperation has made an important contribution to the training of key researchers and teaching staffs of the Academy, ministries, central and local departments. The Academy is the focal place to manage hundreds of cadres who were sent to do post-doctoral, doctoral, or short-term training in the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist countries. Majority of these officials have been holding important positions in the Party and State agencies at the central, local, and Academy levels. From the mid-1990s to now, with the sponsorship of new international partners, nearly 200 staffs of the Academy have completed their master, as well as successfully defended their doctoral thesis in the US, the UK, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong (China)... and returned to work at the Academy system.

Thanks to the support of international partners, new science subjects have been built and put into teaching at the Academy such as: Comparative Politics, Methods of handling political situations, East-West Philosophy, Geopolitics, Management Leadership Sociology, Population and Development, Human Rights, Gender and Development, etc. Especially, the Academy has built 5 training programs for the leaders and managers of the Party and the State of Laos, making an important contribution to further tightening the Vietnam-Laos special friendship. The Academy has also welcomed many experts, scholars, ambassadors of the US, France, the UK, Canada, Japan, and Korea to organize refresher’s courses for senior cadres of the 12th and 13th Congresses; sent delegations of the high-ranking officials to train in Japan, Korea, the UK, Singapore, Israel and so on.

International cooperation has actively improved foreign language proficiency for the Academy’s researchers and teaching staff. Through international cooperation, the Academy has opened nearly 30 classes of English, French and Chinese taught by foreign teachers with roughly 600 of students; has sent dozens of young staffs to study English abroad according to the scholarship programs covered by the US, Australian, UK governments to improve foreign language proficiency; created favorable conditions for many young officials with sufficient foreign language skills to attend graduate school or work as doctoral students at home and abroad.

The Academy’s international cooperation has obtained meaningful achievements and contributed to maintaining the sustainable development of the Academy. In order to continue strengthening international cooperation on staff training in the new period, the Academy should focus on implementing well the following solutions:

First, the Academy needs to develop a strategy to expand regional and global cooperation according to the foreign policy of our Party, with firm and sustainable steps.

To start, it is needed to identify improving the quality of leadership training as one of the important objectives of international cooperation. In which, the key issue is to improve the quality of the teaching staff in terms of expertise as well as access to modern teaching styles and experience in training management of developed countries.

It is imperative to continue to make the best use of existing partners while looking for new partners with diverse and practical forms of cooperation. It is necessary to increase the exchange of staff training, foreign language training, the exchange of lecturers, regular invitation of foreign reporters to teach at the Academy.

A key issue in building cooperation and integration strategy is the staff’s preparation. Therefore, it is needed to step by step standardize the contingent of researchers and teaching staff, especially foreign language proficiency. It is necessary to motivate and prioritize the budget, open more foreign language classes and facilitate staff to study foreign languages abroad. In the practice of the Academy as well as other agencies, language problems always prevent the expansion and efficiency of international cooperation. In many cases, there is an excess of quotas for participating in foreign training because there is no staff with sufficient foreign language skills.

To bring out practical results in international cooperation, the Academy needs to issue a Management Regulation on new external activities and revise the Internal Expenditure Regulation to suit the practical situation. In which, building operating mechanisms and regimes, especially in terms of funding, mediums, and facilities to serve activities in accordance with the market mechanism and the practical situation of the country.

Second, proactively promote internal resources in international cooperation starting with recognize international cooperation as an important factor and driving force for development. Therefore, the Academy’s Party Committee and the Board of Directors need to continue paying attention and closely monitoring the process of finding partners, organizing the allocation of forces for implementation. On the other hand, units, collectives, and individuals also need to clearly see their proactive role in creation and promoting internal strengths in preparing staff in expertise and foreign language; finding international cooperation partners. Expanding international cooperation is the main responsibility of the Department of International Cooperation, but the support and coordination of all units in the Academy is also needed, especially from specialized institutes. Trust is especially important in cooperation, therefore, promoting internal strength to develop and becoming a reliable partner is extremely critical.

Third, there must be sufficient quantity and quality of staff engaged in international cooperation with professional qualifications, diplomatic skills, foreign languages, and enthusiasm for the job. The staff doing international cooperation is the one connecting the relationships between the Academy and the outside; hence, it is necessary to be proactive and flexible in finding partners. Moreover, after connecting partners with the Academy, international cooperation staff must organize, manage, and implement effective cooperation. In the current situation, though there is a great opportunity to expand international cooperation, the most significant issue is the enthusiasm, dynamism, and creativity of international cooperation officials, which is the key contribution to the effective implementation of international cooperation of Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics.

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Dr. Nguyen Thi Hong Van

Department of International Cooperation,

Ho ChiMinh National Academy of Politics