The signing ceremony of the MoU (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi – The Republic of Korea (RoK) will provide non-refundable aid worth 500,000 USD for ethnic minority boarding and semi-boarding schools in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai under a Memorandum of Understanding signed in Hanoi on April 13.

The document was inked by leading officials from the Government Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, Yen Bai province, and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in Vietnam.

The aid, offered by the RoK Government via KOICA, aims to improve the education quality of those schools in the locality.

Addressing the signing ceremony, Minister-Chairman of the Government Committee Hau A Lenh spoke highly of the aid which will help ethnic minority children access better conditions for studying and enrich their knowledge.

He thanked the Korean Embassy and KOICA for the assistance and contributions, expressing his hope that cooperation between his committee and the two entities will be further promoted in the coming time.

RoK Ambassador Oh Young-ju affirmed that making policies to promote inclusive social development so that no one is left behind is becoming one of the most important responsibilities of countries, including the RoK and Vietnam.

The project this time is expected by the Korean side to be a typical one showing support for the Vietnamese future generation's efforts for a better life.

According to Ngo Hanh Phuc, Vice Chairman of the Yen Bai provincial People's Committee, over the past years, the province has always received attention from ministries, sectors and centrally-run agencies, as well as the coordination and assistance from other localities and especially the support of programnes and projects sponsored by foreign organisations, including KOICA.

In 2018 - 2020, the Korean Government, through KOICA and Save the Children in Vietnam, implemented a project on improving school readiness and learning outcomes for ethnic minority children of 14 preschools and primary schools in Yen Bai's districts of Van Chan and Mu Cang Chai with a total cost of over 27 billion VND (1.15 million USD). The project was successfully carried out, bringing about high efficiency and contributing to improving the quality of education for the target schools.