At the meeting, VSFA President Vu Viet Ngoan rejoiced the signing of Letter of Intent (LOI) between VFSA and SIF on February 25, 2022. He proposed the two sides develop and implement a joint program of support young social entrepreneurs in Vietnam. It will provide funding and training for young people and women have the need to start a social enterprise but face many difficulties. The program’s goal is to sponsor 2 to 5 projects to support start-up social enterprises each year and expected to be implemented for a period of 5 years (2022 – 2026).
Ngoan hoped that with the support from SIF, Singaporean experts and entrepreneurs can become mentors in the program so that youths in Vietnam can learn from social entrepreneur models in Singapore.
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| Executive Director of Singapore International Foundation (SIF) Jean Tan (left) and President of the Vietnam – Singapore Friendship Association (VSFA) Vu Viet Ngoan at the meeting (Photo: Hai An). |
In response, the SIF leader said that the Young Social Entrepreneurs (YSE) by SIF will partner with universities to provide skill trainings, mentoring and sponsoring to support the participants.
In 2022, SIF also launched DigiLABS – an online volunteer program that helps young people learn necessary knowledge and skills in the digital age. They can join to learn about digital marketing, data science, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence, from Singapore experts.
SIF will partner with VSFA to help young Vietnamese people to participate in these programs, said Jean Tan. Also, she emphasized the needs for more volunteer programs to strengthen people-to-people ties in a practical appoarch.
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| In 2023, SIF cooperated with Vietnam National University to organize the Young Social Entrepreneurs (YSE) Regional programme workshop for 26 Vietnamese student (Photo: SIF). |
During this visit to Vietnam, SIF also looked forward to strengthen cooperation with Vietnamese hospitals in healthcare. For many years, SIF has worked with Cho Ray Hospital (Ho Chi Minh City) and Hanoi Medical University (Hanoi) to host many professional training workshops for doctors, nurses and experts from the two countries. SIF hopes to develop projects in the field of culture and tourism in the coming time to promote exchanges, to enhance the mutual understanding and cultivate the friendship between the two peoples.
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| A professional training session to improve the quality of medical care for hemodialysis patients in the Northern region, in the project “Improving the medical capacity of hemodialysis specialists” by the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) cooperates with Hanoi Medical University and Tan Tock Seng Hospital (Photo: SIF). |
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