The Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, visited Wednesday the Vietnamese-German University (VGU), located in the southern province of Binh Duong, to witness the opening of its global production engineering and management master’s program.

Wowereit was accompanied by German Consul General Dr. Hans-Dieter Stell and Prof. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Heiß.

He expressed his hope at the ceremony that VGU graduates will contribute to their country’s economic growth and drive to improve its people’s standard of living.

They are expected to help tackle current problems in Vietnam such as traffic jams and environmental pollution, he said.

Wowereit was on an official five-day visit to Vietnam, which concluded on Thursday, during which he had talks with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Hanoi People’s Committee Chairman Nguyen The Thao.

He also attended an economic conference that was meant to promote the German capital’s image in Vietnam.

This was the first-ever visit of a Berlin Mayor to Vietnam since the united Germany was formed in 1990.

Currently, more than 15,000 Vietnamese nationals are living in Berlin, the largest Vietnamese community in Germany.

In 2008 VGU was founded at first as an initiative by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the German State Hessen but it has broadened to full cooperation with Germany over the past years. 

The school is part of a Vietnamese plan, the “New Model University Project,” to build world-class universities in Vietnam with support from partner countries whose higher education institutions will act as models for their local counterparts.