At the meeting, VNU President Nguyễn Kim Sơn reported to the PM on VNU’s current operations and presented some proposals.

Leaders of Hanoi City, ministries and sectors expressed their support for VNU’s proposals and said that they would continue to join efforts in building VNU.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy PM Vũ Đức Đam stressed that VNU had always been a pioneer in the education reform with its start-up program, competence assessment, and scientific paper publication in international journals.

Expressing his support for the proposals of VNU, the Deputy PM said that it was necessary to build a unique mechanism for the VNU Project in Hoa Lac. However, the Deputy PM noted that the construction of the VNU Town in Hoa Lac should be mainly state-funded.

On behalf of the Government, PM Nguyễn Xuân Phúc highly praised VNU for its efforts, solidarity and determination in such activities as continuing to innovate and developing well toward standardization, modernization and international integration; strongly promoting autonomy for the member units; highly promoting knowledge transfer and start-up activities; focusing on applied science products to meet the real life’s needs …

Emphasizing that the education and training reform was the driving force for the country advancement, the PM said that VNU should play a key role in the education system, especially in higher education. The Government and the PM believe and express their high expectations from VNU’s contribution to education innovation in particular and to the national construction in general.

"I believe that VNU is the university that leads the university system in innovation, integration and the national development. The role of VNU is really great, so it must be determined to stronger strive to be worthy of the belief of the Party, the State and the people”, said PM Nguyễn Xuân Phúc.

The PM also remarked that the general trend was to support the proposals aimed at building a world-class VNU Town.

Concerning VNU’s proposals, the PM directed:

The Ministry of Home Affairs to collaborate with the Ministry of Education and Training in proposing suitable changes to the current salary levels and allowances for professors to resolve the outstanding relating issues.

Regarding the pilot implementation of the final product expenditure package for S & T activities, the PM said that as the current financial mechanism had many constraints, a more flexible mechanism should be set up for university researchers to create quality products. The Ministry of Science and Technology was assigned the task of coordinating with the Ministry of Finance in guiding the implementation of this plan.

According to the PM, emulation and reward should always be based on the specific scientific product and in accordance with the Law on Emulation and Reward. In case of exceptionally outstanding scientific products, the proposed form of reward is to be approved by the PM.

On approving the special financing mechanism for VNU Vietnam-Japan University, the PM assigned the University the task of finalizing the special financial mechanism adapted to the contributions from the concerned ministries to submit to the PM for approval after the promulgation the decree on the public higher education institution autonomy.

The PM further expressed his support for the recommendations relating to the VNU Construction Project in Hoa Lac and assigned the concerned ministries, sectors and Hanoi city such specific tasks as handing over the VNU Construction Project in Hoa Lac to VNU, authorizing VNU to make investment decisions, requesting Hanoi authorities to work on the building of public facilities in Hoa Lac and hand over the land use right to VNU...  The PM also urged Hanoi City to direct Thach That district to speed up the site clearance process and resettlement plan; VNU is entitled to adjust the detailed project planning and subprojects details scaled at 1:500 in accordance with the new requirements and tasks; more capital is to be invested in land clearing for the constructing of a university town.

Regarding the proposal of borrowing ODA from the World Bank to invest in some urgent key works for VNU in Hoa Lac, the PM directed the Ministry of Planning and Investment to cooperate with the Ministry of Finance and VNU in finalizing a specific plan to be submitted to the PM for approval. He also supported the borrowing of ODA from Japan for the construction of Vietnam-Japan University in Hoa Lac.

Later the same day, the PM and his delegation visited the VNU Town in Hoa Lac. After visiting the facilities in Hoa Lac, the PM expressed his determination to invest in building a world-class university town in parallel with Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park and Vietnam Ethnic Culture Village, forming a core knowledge satellite town of Hanoi.