Peres meets with Israeli-trained students in Vietnam

Courses taken in Israel, primarily in agriculture, education and economics, have turned Vietnamese students into goodwill ambassadors.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Peres with Vietnamese students 311 (photo credit: Mark Neiman/GPO)
Peres with Vietnamese students 311
(photo credit: Mark Neiman/GPO)
Just before leaving Vietnam to return to home on Saturday evening, President Shimon Peres met with hundreds of Vietnamese who spent time in Israel as students in a variety of training courses.
These courses, primarily in agriculture, education and economics, have turned them into goodwill ambassadors for Israel.
They were profuse in expressing their appreciation for what they had learned, adding that they had subsequently disseminated that knowledge among other Vietnamese.
Peres was moved by the sincerity of their remarks about what their respective stays in Israel had contributed to their professional know-how and standards, and ultimately to their careers.
Those working in agriculture were particularly grateful for what they had learned and said that their new found knowledge had enabled them to make valuable contributions to their country’s agriculture.
Peres pledged that Israel would make significant increases in training courses for Vietnamese.
As he boarded the plane that was taking him home, the president pronounced his visit to Vietnam to have been “highly successful.”
He had been received with great honor and respect by the Vietnamese leadership, he said, and he was convinced of their strong desire to open a new chapter in their relations with Israel. He was hopeful, he said, that his visit would help to strengthen the strategic alliance between the two countries and would lead to greater cooperation in the domains of security, communications, infrastructure, agriculture and medicine.
Members of the large business delegation with Peres also expressed satisfaction with the visit. Several of them made excellent contacts with important figures in Vietnam’s business community and were confident that these connections would translate into significant business transactions that would give Israel yet another foothold in the Asian market.