The Consulate General of India has just celebrated a cooperation program run to help and share experience with developing countries, including Vietnam, in Ho Chi Minh City this week.

The diplomatic body organized a ceremony to honor the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Program (ITEC) at the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Friendship Organizations Hall on Friday.  

More than 100 ITEC alumni from various provinces in southern Vietnam also attended the event, together with other distinguished guests.

The program was initiated in 1964 to share “the Indian developmental experience and expertise acquired in its own quest for growth as a proud independent nation” with other developing countries, the Consulate General of India said the same day in a press release.

The first Vietnamese candidates went to India under the ITEC program in the 1970s. 

Over the years, hundreds of ITEC scholarships have been won by Vietnamese scholars.  Currently, there are 150 ITEC scholarships available to Vietnam (50 administered by the consulate), which cover a diverse spectrum of courses from IT to rural development, parliamentary practices to entrepreneurship, marine to aeronautical engineering and so on.

Students from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities perform an Indian dance at a ceremony to celebrate the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Program in Ho Chi Minh City on December 23, 2016. Photo: Consulate General of India

Consul General Smita Pant addressed the gathering and highlighted India's commitment to overall development partnership with Vietnam.

She said that India’s commitments under the ITEC program, which is fully funded by the government of India providing return air tickets, boarding and monthly stipends, have contributed to the capacity development in such areas as IT, financial management, English proficiency, remote-sensing, rural development, environmental issues and renewable energy. 

“Our bilateral relationship will thus continue to flourish in all times to come,” Consul General Pant said.

Vietnam and India established full diplomatic relations on January 7, 1972.

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