Previously, the Academy’s international cooperation was mainly with the international communist and workers movements, with the training institutions in the socialist countries. In recent years, the Academy has continued maintaining, strengthening and developing cooperative relations with the Chinese and Lao partners as well as expanding and strengthening cooperation with many prestigious educational and training institutions of countries in all five continents. International cooperation is developing not only at the National Academy but also at its affiliated units, especially the Academy of Journalism and Communication. The Academy currently has cooperative relations with more than 200 international partners who are political parties, public agencies, international organizations, NGOs, universities, research institutes, etc. in the world. The Academy has made an important and active contribution to Vietnam’s development and international integration process by training and fostering high-level human resources as well as doing policy research and consultation.

The forms and contents of cooperation have become more diverse and plentiful over the past time. The Academy has implemented cooperation in various forms which include the exchange of delegations of leaders and scientific cadres, the joint-research in international scientific projects, the researches under the government protocols, the independent research followed by scientific workshop to release the achieved results, and the joint-training programs between the Academy and prestigious scientific partners, holding conferences, seminars, scientific information sessions with the participation of highly qualified international scholars for sharing new scientific knowledge.

International cooperation activities have actively served the leaders and managers training and fostering work, the scientific and political theory research, the cadres training for other partner parties and countries, the development of researchers and lecturers, and the improvement in facilities and technical infrastructure of the Academy.

The Academy’s international cooperation has made new development steps and achievements as follows:

Firstly, international cooperation has actively served the leaders and managers training work of the Party and the State.

With the efficient international support, the Academy has developed many new subjects for training such as Comparative Politics, Public Policy, Philosophy East and West, Leadership and Management Sciences, Population and Development, Human Rights, Gender and Development. Especially, the Academy of Journalism and Communication has finished building the Master of Journalism joint-training program with the University of Technology Sydney (Australia) and the joint-training program with the University of Vienna (Austria).

In addition to the training program content, the Academy has also actively innovated its teaching methods. The Australian and German (FES)-funded projects have helped train teams of lecturers on Positive Teaching Methods for the Academy. The JICA (Japan) projects of have helped the Academy with training courses on the educational and training management (TOT) for lecturers in the whole Academy system as well as provincial political schools.

The Academy has officially received a lot of experts, scholars, and the Ambassadors from Japan, South Korea, France, England, Canada, etc. coming to lecture in the training courses for the 12th National Party Congress planned strategic cadres and has organized for missions of senior cadres to train abroad in such countries as Japan, South Korea, England, Singapore, Israel, etc.

Secondly, international cooperation has contributed to improving the HCMA scientific research capacity.

Over the years, numerous joint research and training programs and projects such as the PAPI program with UNDP, the DEEP program with KOICA, the Consulting experts program with JICA, the cooperative training programs with Laos, China and Japan, South Korea, the knowledge and experience sharing program in cooperation with World Bank, EU, the U.S, France, England, Germany, Sweden, or the academic exchange programs with Cuba, South Africa, Mozambique, Israel, India, Singapore, Thailand, etc., have been efficiently conducted and essentially contributed to accomplishing the Academy’s missions.

By attending international scientific workshops in the Academy or abroad, the Academy staff have had opportunities to exchange academic knowledge, research experiences and scientific information. Dozens of groups of the Academy staff attend international scientific workshops every year, thereby contributing to their professional development. Since 2014, the Academy’s whole system has organized nearly 200 working and research delegations abroad with approximately 1,500 people, and nearly 300 delegations of foreign countries and international organizations with approximately 1,000 people visiting for working sessions and workshops.

With the international support, hundreds of the Academy staff could study for Master and Doctorate degrees; receive scholarships and funding from embassies and international organizations for training in professional knowledge, skills and foreign languages, actively contributing to upgrading the qualifications and expanding the vision for the lecturers and scientific researchers.

Thirdly, international cooperation has contributed to the implementation of political and external relations tasks assigned by the Party and the State in training and fostering the cadres of partner parties.

Over the past years, the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, in fulfilling the tasks assigned by the Party and the State leaders of Vietnam, has regularly organized training courses for the leaders and managers of committees, ministries of the Party, the State, socio-political organizations and localities in the political system of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, the Cambodian People’s Party, held training courses for strategic leaders and managers of Frelimo Party in Mozambique, the Communist Party of Peru to meet the human resources training demand of the revolutionary cause of partner parties.

The Academy has so far trained and fostered thousands of cadres for the Party and the State of the Laos PDR, including leaders, middle and senior managers, scientific and political cadres. Within five years (2014-2018), the Academy fostered 48 PhD students, 140 Masters and 305 Bachelors students in various majors for the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party. The Academy organized five advanced political theory courses, five courses for Party Secretaries at district level and many profession fostering courses such as the organization, inspection, propaganda, external affairs, journalism courses, etc. for Laos. The total number of Lao students graduating between 2014 and 2018 was 1,117 students. After graduating from the Academy and returning to their country, they have held important positions in the political system of Laos such as one Politburo member, five members of the Party Central Committee and seventeen deputy ministers and equivalents, and many other important positions.

As for the Cambodian People’s Party, to date, there have been hundreds of Cambodian revolutionary cadres trained and fostered at HCMA, if counting the cadres trained and fostered at the former Special School of Politics. Many students have become high-ranking cadres of the Cambodian People’s Party.

The Academy also received, trained and fostered 20 cadres of the FRELIMO Party School (Mozambique) and 8 cadres of the Peruvian Communist Party - Red Fatherland. These are important factors to help Vietnam expand multi-faceted cooperation, especially in economic development, with African and Latin American countries.

Fourthly, international cooperation has contributed to strengthening the HCMA facilities and technical infrastructure.

The Academy’s international cooperation has over the years contributed to strengthening the facilities and technical infrastructure to effectively serve the training and scientific research missions of the Academy. Thanks to the international assistance, the Academy has received non-refundable aid projects such as the 40 million yuan-worth project supported by China to build student dormitories at the National Academy, the US$1.5 million-worth project supported by the Korean government to develop the e-library, the US$50,000-worth project supported by the Embassy of Japan to supply office machines, etc. The high-value equipment from over 20 training and scientific research projects including cars, air conditioners, computers, printers, photocopiers, multipurpose projectors, etc. have been handed over to HCMA for researching and lecturing in the system.

The Academy, through these international cooperation activities, has become more well-known to international friends, thereby contributing to strengthening the solidarity and friendship between Vietnam and other countries in the world. The Academy has become a reliable destination for training institutions, international organizations and embassies of various countries. Foreign experts and scholars have strong wish to attend conferences, seminars, presentations, or lectures at the Academy.

Besides the achievements, international cooperation of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics still has certain limitations.

Firstly, while international cooperation in scientific research, training and fostering leaders and managers of the Academy during the past time has actively developed many relationships and cooperative relations with new partners, the number of partners is not stable. Some Memorandums of Understanding have been signed but the actual cooperation has yet to bring about practical results.

Secondly, the efficiency level in converting external forces into internal strengths is still low. Despite the support for the development of new subjects, some international cooperation projects have not guaranteed its sustainability and the utilization of the results obtained.

Thirdly, the expansion of international relations in scientific research has not been well done with several countries, the communist and labor parties, the left-wing and progressive revolutionary forces, the political and ruling parties around the world.

Fourthly, the Academy’s budget allocation for the international cooperation activities in training, fostering, and scientific research is very limited while the infrastructure and working facilities have not met the requirements of the external relations tasks.

Fifthly, some officials involved in international cooperation activities are not really meeting the requirements of international partners. The number of international relations and cooperation officials in the whole system is small while some officials are still weak in professional knowledge and skills, and foreign language qualification.

In order to fulfill the requirements imposed by the missions in the next stage, the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics needs to proactively and actively expand international cooperation in accordance with the following guidelines:

Firstly, the Academy’s international cooperation has to comply with the new external relations policy of the Communist Party of Vietnam, which is “independence, autonomy, peace, cooperation and development; promoting diversified and multilateral external relations; proactive and active international integration; elevating the position of the country; for the interests of the nation, the people, for the prosperity of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; being a reliable partner and responsible member of the international community, contributing to the cause of peace, national independence, democracy and social progress in the world”.

Secondly, the Academy needs to continue developing its international cooperation to be on a par with its position and political missions as well as reinforcing its role and identity as a high-ranking Party School of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Through international cooperation, the Academy will contribute to the effective implementation of consistent viewpoints and policies of the Party and the State of Vietnam on external affairs while absorbing knowledge, experience and skills in leadership, management and national governance in the context of vivid and dynamic changes today.

Thirdly, the Academy needs to continue its cooperation with the communist and labor parties, the left-wing and progressive forces, the political and ruling parties around the world.

Fourthly, in the Academy’s cooperation with training and scientific research institutions in countries in the region and the world, it is necessary to safeguard national interests, maintain the independence and autonomy for peace, friendship, cooperation and development.

For the accomplishments in international cooperation to meet the requirements for constructing and developing the Academy into not only a national hub for the theoretical research of the Party and the State as well as training leaders and managers, but also a prestigious institution in the region and the world, it is necessary for the Academy in the coming time to focus on the following solutions:

Firstly, having an adequate and proper awareness of the position and the role of international cooperation as an important component in implementing the Academy’s political missions, meeting the international integration and development needs of the country.

Secondly, promoting the human resources training strategy to meet the Academy’s requirements for international integration in training and scientific research. It is essential to build a contingent of scientific officials with adequate professional and foreign language qualifications ​​to meet the requirements for integration and cooperation in training and scientific research in order to take an active role and equal position in international cooperation.

Thirdly, strengthening the cooperation with traditional and strategic partners; selecting suitable and efficient partners, topics and forms for cooperation in scientific research and training; promoting cooperation with the partners who have training and scientific research strengths in the fields of political science, administrative science and state management.

Fourthly, renovating the management mechanism of international cooperation activities; increasing autonomy and self-responsibility to meet the Academy’s general requirements as well as the affiliated units’ specific needs for development.

Fifthly, increasing the budget and funding for international cooperation: supplying service activities, thereby increasing income for the Academy and its affiliated units through international cooperation; collaborating with international partners and studying their experiences in modernization to figure out a better way of building and upgrading the Academy’s facilities.

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References:

1. CPV: The 12th National Party Congress Documents, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2016.

2. Luu Dat Thuyet: The thirty-year contribution of the International Cooperation Department to the external affairs of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration, Hanoi, 2011.

3. Pham Binh Minh: External relations policy of the 11th National Party Congress and important developments in the external relations thinking of our Party, Hanoi, 2011.

4. Tuong Duy Kien: International relations and cooperation of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics - achievements, limitations and solutions in the coming time, Hanoi, 2011.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Hong Van

Department of International Cooperation, HCMA