Also attending were Director of KOICA Vietnam Lee Byung Hwa; Director in charge of Southeast Asia Region Moon Sang Won; Deputy Director of KOICA Vietnam Song EunEui; representative leaders of a number of relevant departments and sectors; leaders and staff of Bac Giang Vietnam - Korea College of Technology.

KOICA was the Korean International Cooperation Agency under the Government, under the direct management of the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with the task of implementing non-refundable aid programs for developing countries, including Vietnam.

KOICA's operating network was present in many countries around the world. KOICA's representative office was established in Vietnam on July 18, 1994 with the purpose of implementing technical cooperation and non-refundable aid activities of the Korean Government to Vietnam.

Five priority areas of support were implemented through forms such as organizing training courses in Korea for Vietnamese officials; sending experts and volunteers to work at Vietnamese agencies; cooperating in research and development; implementing projects to build schools, hospitals, information systems, and provide equipment; cooperating with other Korean non-governmental organizations operating in Vietnam.

Bac Giang Vietnam - Korea College of Technology was a project implemented with non-refundable aid from the Korean government through KOICA since 2012. With the support of KOICA, the college was constantly developing both in terms of quantity and quality.

At the meeting, Principal of the college Nguyen Cong Thong informed about the performance results of Bac Giang Vietnam - Korea College of Technology in the 2014-2024 period associated with the investment efficiency of non-refundable ODA aid project of the Korean Government through KOICA organization (2012-2014).

Bac Giang Vietnam - Korea College of Technology was established on August 31, 2012. The school was a public vocational education facility at the college level under the People's Committee of Bac Giang province with the task of organizing vocational training at college, intermediate, elementary levels and regular training programs according to regulations of the Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.

After 10 years of official operation (2014-2024), the school's organizational structure and apparatus had now increased from 10 affiliated focal points (in 2014) to 21 affiliated focal points (in 2023). The team of officials and workers was increasing in both quantity and quality, appropriate regarding structure.

The school currently had 164 officers, civil servants, public employees, and workers. About 100 guest teachers came from a number of units and businesses. The teaching staff fully met prescribed teaching standards.

In 2014, the school was licensed for 05 college-level professions with a capacity of 270 students. By 2024, the licensing scale had increased to 43 occupations at 3 levels of qualifications, including 16 college occupations, 12 intermediate occupations, 15 elementary occupations with a flow of 2,770 people/year.

In 2014, the school enrolled 390 students at the college level. By 2024, enrollment and training would be implemented for 22 occupations, including 07 occupations at the international level and 07 occupations at the national level; 05 occupations for high quality training; 01 business-linked training profession according to the "1 +1 + 1" model (in the first year, students would study at school with a general knowledge group according to regulations; in the second year, students would combine training at school and businesses; in the third year, students would study and practice right at the company). From the 2014 training scale of 270 students, it had reached 6,122 students in the 2023-2024 school year.

After 10 years, the growth rate of the school's training scale was very high. The number of pupils and students in 2024 increased 20.3 times compared to 2014. Annual enrollment results exceeded the target, the number of students with demand for vocational training always exceeded the training scale in most occupations that the school was training.

From 2017 until now, the average rate of students having jobs immediately after graduation reached over 95%, of which college reached 95%, intermediate school reached 97.7%.

Speaking at the meeting, Principal Nguyen Cong Thong proposed to KOICA to support the school with consulting experts to build a school development project for the 2026-2030 period with a vision to 2040 associated with the fields of Korea’s advantages. Provide development aid plan in the next phase of the non-refundable ODA project implemented by KOICA from 2012-2014 by participating in the implementation of the Bac Giang Vietnam - College of Technology Development Project in the 2026-2030 period with a vision to 2040. Introduce universities and colleges of Korea to support the school in developing conditions to ensure quality of programs and learning materials, training teachers, and determining the need to invest in equipment to practice new technology skills in teaching and learning Korean in Bac Giang. Support Bac Giang High School for the Gifted with 01 STEM classroom on Robotics and Robot control programming.

Speaking here, President of KOICA Korea Chang Won sam thanked the enthusiastic welcome of the leaders of Bac Giang province and Bac Giang Vietnam - Korea College of Technology for the delegation.

Through information from the school, Mr. Chang Won sam highly appreciated the attention and direction from the Central leaders, provincial leaders, departments, sectors and units of Bac Giang province in vocational education. At the same time, he expressed his joy when seeing the development of Bac Giang Vietnam - Korea College of Technology. Mr. Chang Won sam believed that in the coming time, the school would continue to develop, and affirmed that KOICA would give its best support within its capabilities. Regarding the school's proposals, further discussion could be done to include the scope of aid in the coming period.

KOICA was implementing many projects in Vietnam. During this business trip, the delegation inspected granted aid projects in Vietnam. At the same time, met with ministries and central sectors to exchange and discuss to choose a direction for implementing non-refundable aid projects in Vietnam in the 2024-2027 period (with a scale of 200 million USD).

To effectively use the scale of this capital, KOICA wanted to focus on areas that need highly skilled labor resources to coordinate with Vietnam. The project was called "Industrial human resources program for developing countries". It included 3 steps by focusing on training specialized and highly skilled human resources, having job opportunities not only in Vietnam, but also abroad like in Korea after completing training, returning to serve Vietnam when having experience. With the conditions that Bac Giang Vietnam - Korea College of Technology had, Mr. Chang Won sam hoped to be able to coordinate with the school to implement the project.

Regarding the implementation plan, KOICA hoped to sign with the Vietnamese Government to launch the project in 2024 and be ready to cooperate with Bac Giang. He hoped that Bac Giang province and Bac Giang Vietnam - Korea College of Technology would closely contact KOICA Office in Vietnam for continued cooperation in the future.

Speaking at the meeting, Standing Vice Chairman of Provincial People's Committee Mai Son thanked KOICA Vietnam for the close cooperation and coordination in supporting and implementing programs and projects in the province in recent time, including Bac Giang Vietnam - Korea College of Technology.

He gave an overview of the natural conditions, potential, advantages and socio-economic development of Bac Giang province, while emphasizing the province's interest in education. He said that currently, Korea had the largest number of investment enterprises and ranked 2nd in total foreign investment capital in Bac Giang. Import-export between Bac Giang and Korean enterprises accounted for ¼ of the total turnover of the whole province.

He emphasized that Bac Giang valued and recognized the support and attention from Korea in general and KOICA in particular, and hoped that in the coming time, Bac Giang would continue to receive support from Korea and especially KOICA.

He said that Bac Giang province wished to build Bac Giang Vietnam - Korea College of Technology into a high-quality vocational training school of regional caliber. The province was also striving to become a human resource training center to serve semiconductor industry. Therefore, he hoped that KOICA would continue to pay attention, support and cooperate to enhance investment efficiency and sustainable development, and at the same time support Bac Giang to become a semiconductor training center nationwide.

Regarding the Human Resources Program for industry in developing countries, he hoped KOICA would implement a pilot project in Bac Giang. The province committed to continue to create favorable conditions, cooperate closely and effectively with KOICA to well implement KOICA's Programs and Projects in Bac Giang.

On this occasion, the KOICA delegation visited the facilities of Bac Giang Vietnam - Korea College of Technology and planted a tree at the school./.