Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (R) welcomes Professor Stewart Cole, President of the Pasteur Institute in Paris. (Photo: VNA)

Receiving Professor Stewart Cole, President of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, in Hanoi on May 26, PM Chinh affirmed that health care is a traditional cooperation field and a bright spot in the strategic partnership between Vietnam and France, affirming that Vietnam attaches great importance to medical collaboration with France in general and the Pasteur Institute in particular, thus deepening bilateral ties and making them more effective and practical.

He thanked France for supporting Vietnam in training personnel for the medical sector, including the Francophone residency programme for doctors which has received more than 3,000 doctors from Vietnam for practice at French hospitals, and providing vaccines and medical equipment for Vietnam to fight COVID-19.

The Pasteur Institute in Paris has also assisted Pasteur Institutes of Vietnam, especially through the grant of 405,000 EUR to improve their SARS-CoV-2 research, supervision and testing capacity, he noted, adding that the Pasteur Institutes in Vietnam have made important contributions to the development of epidemiology, public health and tropical medicine in the country.

PM Chinh said Vietnam hoped to receive further assistance from the French side in enhancing the capacity for Vietnamese medical staff by granting more doctoral and postdoctoral scholarships to Vietnamese doctors and medical management officials, while helping Vietnam promote digital transformation in the health care sector to enable the country to conduct online medical check-ups and treatment for patients in remote areas and exploit the potential of herbal medicine. Vietnam is also keen on cooperation with France in medical equipment, he added.

As Vietnam is a tropical country with a large and increasing population, the country needs support and cooperation from the Pasteur Institute in Paris in implementing a fundamental strategy on research and production of vaccines to proactively respond to arising problems or new epidemics, he said, describing the area as a key pillar in cooperation between the two sides, with the participation of investors and businesses.

For his part, Professor Cole said that Vietnam has a special position for epidemiologists in France and the Pasteur Institute in Paris, because no other country in the world, even France, has three Pasteur Institutes like Vietnam. Cooperation activities between the Pasteur Institutes of the two countries in recent years have been important and effective on the basis of the good relationship between the two countries and the two governments, he said.

Agreeing with proposals put forth by the Vietnamese leader, he lauded the vision and viewpoints of PM Chinh on the vaccine strategy to prepare for possible circumstances in the future.

Professor Cole affirmed that Pasteur Institute in Paris wants and is ready to strengthen cooperation with the Vietnamese side in the medical sector, particularly in human resource exchange and training, implementing joint research and sharing research results, especially in the field of vaccine and health crisis management, thus making bilateral medical cooperation more effective and practical to serve people's lives and health.