Vietnam has called for Switzerland’s assistance in training a large number of management officials.

Ho Duc Viet, director of the Vietnamese government’s project on promoting overseas training for management officials (called Project 165), has been on a working visit to Switzerland from April 18-22, during an 8-country tour to seek cooperation partners for the scheme.

Mr Viet had working sessions with Swiss State Secretary for Education and Research of the Interior Ministry, Mauro Dell Ambrogio; Director General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Martin Dabinden; Speaker of the Council of State Alain Berset; State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Michael Ambuhl and Deputy State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Anton Thalma.

Mr Viet, who is also Party Secretary and Chairman of the Party Central Committees’ Organisation Commission, stressed the fact that Switzerland has excellent experts in many fields such as finance and banking, tourism and high-technology.

He said part of Switzerland’s official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam could be used to fund the training of Vietnamese officials in the European country. Vietnam also wants to invite Swiss experts to Vietnam for joint research and teaching.

The Swiss side welcomed the project and pledged to consider the Vietnamese side’s proposal. They said they will work with its universities on how to implement the plan.

Mr Viet and his entourage also visited the St. Gallen University and the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration Lausanne (IDHEAP).

In the 2009-1010 period, project 165 plans to send abroad 330 officials for post-graduate training and 1,000 others for internship foreign languages and short-term training each year.

In the 2010-2015, the figures will increase by 10 percent each year.