More than 2,500 police officers in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang will benefit from foreign language lessons funded by the municipal budget as part of a US$600,000 plan until 2030.

The ten-year plan to improve the foreign language proficiency of local police officers has been approved by the People’s Committee of Da Nang, it said Thursday.

Foreign language lessons will be given to police officers working in departments that often come into direct contact with foreigners, including traffic police, immigration, district security, district police, investigative police, and administrative management officers.

They will be taught English, Chinese or Korean, with 1,440 officers slated to take beginner’s lessons from 2020 to 2024 and 1,080 others to attend higher-level classes in the 2025-2030 period.

The target is for 100 percent of police officers from the aforementioned departments to be proficient in at least one foreign language by 2024, and for 75 percent of them to reach the foreign language proficiency required for intermediate leadership and command positions or higher by 2030.

The budget for the program, which tops VND14.1 billion ($600,000), will be allocated from the city’s budget.

Only 38 police officers in the tourist-packed city have completed basic training in a foreign language, most of whom study either English, French, Russian, Chinese or German.

Several officers have an undergraduate degree or similar level certificate in English, but their proficiency has dropped to the point where they can no longer hold a work-related conversation due to lack of practice.

The foreign language teaching plan was first initiated by the Da Nang police department in December last year and put forward for approval on February 10.

The central city welcomed over 3.5 million foreign tourists last year, according to the municipal Department of Tourism.

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