Finland will provide €3 million in non-refundable aid for Vietnam to carry out a program that supports progress toward an industrialized, middle-income knowledge economy by 2020. Under a bilateral agreement to this effect signed in Hanoi on Thursday, the Innovation Partnership Program (IPP), for which the Vietnamese side will contribute US$550,000, will be implemented over a three-year period until 2012, according to the website of the Finnish Embassy in Hanoi.
The main objectives of the program include strengthening the institutional environment for innovation in Vietnam, enhancing science and technology management capacity of Vietnamese agencies, and facilitating public and private partnerships between Vietnamese institutions and between Vietnamese and Finnish entities.This type of institutional collaboration will build on Vietnam’s strong economic growth and gradual movement toward becoming a more knowledge and technology driven economy, utilizing Finland’s technological experience and expertise.
