Hanoi (VNA) – Party General Secretary NguyenPhu Trong attended a ceremony marking the new academic year 2018-2019 at theVietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA) in Hanoi on September 30.

VNUA Director Nguyen Thi Lan said for over 60years, the university has continually developed in terms of size, quantity andquality. At present, it has nearly 1,400 staff members and more than 30,000students, about 500 of them are from other countries. 

It has been recognised as a training centre ofhigh-quality human resources and an advanced research centre for agriculturalscience-technology, economy and policies, and rural development of Vietnam.

She added that graduates of the VNUA has becomean important force contributing to the major achievements in agriculture andrural development during the wartime in the past and the cause of reforms,industrialisation, modernisation and international integration of the countryat present.

Lan noted the VNUA has taken the lead inreforming the training targets, content and methods so as to createhigh-quality human resources able to meet requirements of the actualagricultural development and new-style rural area building while encouragingstudents’ entrepreneurship and innovation. It has also conducted many valuablescientific studies to help Vietnamese agriculture to reach the regional level.

Congratulating the VNUA on its successes overthe last six decades, General Secretary Trong expressed his hope that theschool will work harder to soon become a leading research university in thefield of agriculture.

The VNUA should step up scientific-technologicalactivities to boost training and serve agricultural production and society. Itsresearches should be oriented towards prosperous agriculture, wealthy farmersand civilised rural areas. They also need to help with agriculturalrestructuring and developing smart agriculture that integrates into the world,adapts to climate change, improves products’ added value and contributes tosustainable development, he noted.

He also requested stronger connectivity betweenuniversities and the localities they are situated in, adding that schoolsshould have training and scientific-technological activities serving localdevelopment while authorities also need to support universities located intheir areas.

The Party leader asked the VNUA to continueefforts to become an exemplary agriculture university, adapt to the Fourth IndustrialRevolution and meet the human resources training demand in the new context.

At the VNUA, General Secretary Trong planted atree in the campus and visited a hall displaying hi-tech agricultural productsof the university.–VNA