Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh: Allocate 20% of total budget expenditure to education

On March 31, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh worked with a delegation of 21 leading prestigious US universities participating in the International Academic Exchange Program (IAPP) 2025 in Vietnam. Attending the meeting were Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son; Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung; and US Ambassador to Vietnam Marc E. Knapper.

At the meeting, the Prime Minister emphasized that high-quality human resources, science and technology development, innovation and digital transformation are strategic breakthroughs of Vietnam. To realize the goal of fundamental and comprehensive reform of education and training, many important policies and documents have been issued. The Prime Minister expressed his desire to cooperate and receive experience sharing from the US in this field.

The Prime Minister stated that Vietnam-US university cooperation has not yet reached its potential and proposed to develop a long-term cooperation plan, focusing on student and lecturer exchanges, joint training and research in new fields such as marine, space and underground exploitation. The Prime Minister called on the US to expand scholarships and tuition incentives for Vietnamese students and researchers.

Emphasizing that large US corporations such as Intel, Nvidia, Apple... are expanding their operations in Vietnam, the Prime Minister suggested that universities of the two countries proactively cooperate in training high-quality human resources according to the requirements of high-tech industries, AI, semiconductors, biotechnology, health, agriculture and foreign languages.

US Ambassador Marc E. Knapper and representatives of US universities expressed their readiness to cooperate with Vietnam in socio-economic development, especially in education, training, science, technology and innovation.

There are currently about 30,000 Vietnamese students studying in the US and more than 50 joint training programs between universities of the two countries. The International Academic Partnership Program (IAPP) 2025, jointly organized by the US Embassy, ​​the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam and the Institute of International Education of the United States, aims to strategically connect 21 US universities and 30 Vietnamese universities, focusing on the fields of STEM, ICT, semiconductors - microchips, AI, automation, biotechnology, advanced materials, green energy, international law, agriculture and sustainability, health, education, Southeast Asian studies and Vietnamese language studies.

According to Resolution 29 on fundamental and comprehensive innovation of education and training in 2013 and the Education Law in 2019, the budget for education must ensure at least 20% of the total state budget expenditure. However, in the past 10 years, spending on education and training has only been at 15.7-19.1%.