It’s only a couple of weeks ago that I’ve got to know the conference on SOI ASIA Project be held in Da Nang and I could afford to be here today as I really wanted to attend it, for two reasons: one reason is to meet the world-famous Prof. Murai and the other is to get to know the project itself.

Actually, I already know that “SOI ASIA Project” deals with an education system through Internet in Asian region. And I also know that this project is initiated and led by Prof. Murai of Keio University. But I do not have detailed ideas on what is executed by this system and how they are carried out.

Therefore, three days ago, before attending this conference, I visited Institute of Information Technology in Hanoi and was briefed by Dr. Le Hai Khoi, Dr. Luong Chi Mai and Dr. Tran Ba Thai, which impressed me greatly.

Ladies and gentlemen,
As Japanese ambassador to Viet Nam, I have been thinking days and nights on how Japan should cooperate for economic development of Viet Nam.

It is my conviction that the East Asian countries including China are now struggling and competing with one another for its economic development and even for its survival in an extremely fierce manner. I used to name it as a “Grand Competition Era”.

How can Viet Nam, a less developed country even among ASEAN, not only cope with this Grand Competition but survive and even excel others ? It can never be possible with its cheap and skillful labour only. Viet Nam must make full use of its advantages which I believe lie in Vietnamese intellectual potential, among which is information technology.

With this in mind, I’ve been thinking of how Japan can assist information technology development of Viet Nam by way of ODA in both hard and software.

It is my wish that in the near future Viet Nam be dubbed as “India of East Asia” by being able to be a place of providing software human resources to other Asian countries in the field of information technology.

Now I have a fantastic idea under study with the help of Mr. Shozawa of Asia SEED who is present here today. This idea is supposed to serve mainly two objectives: one is to educate Vietnamese students both in Japan and in Viet Nam in various new and advanced technologies such as information technology and second is to upgrade Vietnamese universities and institution’s level of researches in the same field by way of a wide range of linkages between Japanese and Vietnamese universities.

We would like to utilize Japanese ODA to implement the idea. I wonder if SOI ASIA Project can be a good example or even a part of it.

In concluding, I would like to express all my appreciation to Prof. Murai and all the participants to the conference, and hope that the Da Nang meeting will be an important milestone for further cooperation among the Asian countries.

Thank you.