Attending the workshop, in the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) side, there were Prof. Dr. Pham Van Duc, Vice President of VASS, Director of Graduate Academy of Social Sciences; Director of Scientific Management Department, Director of Planning and Finance Department, Chief of VASS, Director and Chief Editor of Institute of South East Asian Studies, Director of Institute of Regional Sustainable Development, Director of Institute for Family and Gender Studies, Director of Institute of Social Sciences of the Central Region, Director of Institute of Social Sciences of Central Highlands, Deputy Director of Institute of Human Geography.
In the Laos Academy of Social Sciences (LASS) there were Director of Institute of Sociology, Director of Institute of Information and Laos Social Sciences Review, Director of Institute of Economics, Director of Institute of Cultural Studies, Director of Institute of Politics, Acting Director of Institute of History, Director of Scientific Management Department, Acting Director of Organization and Personnel Department, and Chief of Lao National Social Sciences Council.
The meeting focused on discussions about the main collaborative contents that were of the two parties’ interests, which were: i) cooperation in training postgraduate including Master and PhD, language and professional training and refraining for young researchers; ii) collaboration in scientific research among affiliated institutes; iii) cooperation in enhancing ability of library of LASS; iv) cooperation in enhancing ability of Scientific Management Department of LASS; v) collaboration in organizing international conference remarking 55th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Laos in 2017.
After several presentations and proposals on some particular collaborative content from delegates, Prof. Dr. Pham Van Duc, Vice President of VASS summarized, highly evaluated recent cooperation results between the two Academies, and also expressed the willingness of VASS to continue developing the comprehensive cooperation relationship with LASS. Prof. Dr. Pham Van Duc emphasized great demand of cooperation, favourable conditions to implement collaborative activities, the need for promoting further comprehensive cooperation between the two parties, and selected issues and key areas of collaboration to have practical results in the next term. Regarding cooperation in training, Graduate Academy of Social Sciences was willing to meet and give the best conditions for training master. PhD and short courses for officials of LASS, Organization and Personnel Department of LASS needed produce statistics and propose specific training needs. Institute of South East Asian Studies and other institutes that had demands for Lao language training should propose the number of young officials to send to Laos to study. Regarding cooperation in scientific research among affiliated institutes, the Vice President suggested that the two Academies draw experience from the previous term to develop further collaborative content.
Institutes under VASS proposed 11 schemes about international integration, recommended LASS research, select, supplement schemes if necessary in order to include in plans and assign tasks to the affiliated institutes under the two Academies to allocate financial and human resources involved in research. National-level and key ministerial-level programs and projects taken charge by VASS and affiliated institutes needed to consider LASS as priority partner in comparative studies. The Vice President assigned tasks to Institute of South East Asian Studies, Institute of Regional Sustainable Development and some affiliated institutes to urgently develop schemes about international integration VASS-LASS in order to seek financial resources for cooperation in scientific research. VASS was always willing to send experts to support researchers of LASS in building and completing explanations of scientific research. Regarding cooperation in improving the ability of library of LASS, the Vice President proposed research in capability to connect to on-going projects that aimed at enhancement the capacity of libraries of affiliated institutes under VASS, while assigning tasks to Planning and Finance Department in VASS to research and look for appropriate funding. Regarding collaboration in enhancement ability of Scientific Management Department of LASS, he assigned Scientific Management Department of VASS to be in charge of an implement. Regarding cooperation in organizing international conference remarking 55th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Laos in 2017, Prof. Dr. Pham van Duc suggested the conference be held in Vietnam and invite experts from and outside VASS and LASS who had done research about Laos and Vietnam to prepare speeches and join the conference. On this occasion, the affiliated instituted of VASS awarded a number of publications for Institute of Information and Laos Social Sciences Review./.
Prof. Dr. Vo Hung Cuong
