In order to exchange and learn experiences on converting public non-business organizations with revenues to financial autonomy and management of officials of the Vietnam National University of Forestry, the high-level delegation of Laos PDR headed by Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, H.E. Nisith KEOPANYA, Mr. Thongsavanh PANYAVICHITH,  Director of the Department of Career Unit Management and Public Employees, Ministry of Home Affairs; Mr. Ekkasay PHUTHONESY, Head of Central Budget Management Department, Ministry of Finance, and leaders of functional departments under the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Finance had an open meeting and exchange at the Vietnam National University of Forestry.

Accompanying the Lao PDR delegation, there were Mr. Chu Tuan Tu, Director General of the Department of International Cooperation, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Thao, Senior official of the Department of International Cooperation, Vietnamese Ministry of Home affairs, Mr. Can Van Toan, Senior official in International Cooperation Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Welcoming the delegation, on the side of the Vietnam National University of Forestry, there were Prof. Dr. Pham Van Dien, President; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phung Van Khoa, Vice President; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui The Doi, Vice President; and leaders of relevant departments participated and discussed.

At the beginning of the meeting, Prof. Dr. Pham Van Dien, President of the University introduced an overview of the activities of the Vietnam National University of Forestry in training high-quality human resources, as well as research to develop the forestry sector in Vietnam. Besides, the Professor also shared about the autonomy situation of the Vietnam National University of Forestry. According to Decree No. 60/2021/ND-CP classifying the level of financial autonomy of public non-business units into 4 groups and currently the Vietnam National University of Forestry is classified as Group 3: Public non-business units that partially guarantee recurrent expenditures are units with self-assurance of recurrent expenditures from 10% to less than 100%, ordered or tendered by the State to provide public non-business services.

President Pham Van Dien also emphasized that the autonomy process of the Vietnam National University of Forestry and schools in the Agro-Forestry-Fishery sector in general are facing some difficulties. The main reason is that the trend of the labor market makes enrollment not good, there is no innovation and cannot compete with hot industry groups such as economics, finance, marketing. However, the Vietnam National University of Forestry has also been making plans to partially solve this problem. The most recent is the approval of the two governments of Vietnam and Laos to jointly build the Vietnam Lao Center for Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, which is expected to be located at the Vietnam National University of Forestry. The University hopes that with modern research centers and bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and Laos, it will contribute to promoting enrollment activities for this particular career.

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, H.E. Nisith KEOPANYA highly appreciated the efforts and achievements made by the Vietnam National University of Forestry. The Deputy Minister also expressed his interest and support for cooperation projects between the two countries as well as student and trainee exchange programs to train high-quality human resources for the forestry sector of Vietnam and Laos. Through the meeting, the Deputy Minister also expressed his appreciation for listening to real stories, thereby learning how to manage and operate public universities such as the Vietnam National University of Forestry in the process of autonomy and management of university officials. He also affirmed that he will discuss and coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Sports and Education of Laos to provide maximum support for cooperation activities with Laos of the Vietnam National University of Forestry in the coming time.

The meeting ended successfully and opened many cooperation opportunities between the Vietnam National University of Forestry and the relevant ministries of Laos.