Historically, education has been given great importance in Vietnam. This is because of its Confucian social and ethical value system that underpins people’s beliefs. Confucius, the Chinese philosopher and politician, believed that even a peasant could raise his status to gentleman through education.

This strong belief in the importance of education has propelled the education sector to the top of the government’s agenda. Education development is listed among the top seven foreign investment promotion categories within the country.

As part of its commitment to the World Trade Organization, Vietnam has opened up its education sector to foreign investors. If an educational institution is registering to operate for less than 20 years it does not have to build its own facilities. Space can be rented in existing schools or in office blocks. If the educational institution registers to operate for more than 20 years, the construction of new facilities is mandatory. The educational institutions can be wholly foreign owned or joint partnerships with local investors or other educational institutions.

Data from the world bank shows that 27% of Vietnamese parents send their children for private lessons at tuition centres, so the private language education market in Vietnam is robust. Half of the $198.7 billion spent in these centres is on English. By 2020, the government aims for all graduates to have a proficient level of English, which has led to a huge increase in demand for the private sector to fill.

Vietnam is demographically in a great place right now. The average age of its 98 million people is 27, and 70% of the population is under 35.

Companies are taking advantage of this newly skilled and highly educated population. Samsung is building a new R&D Center at a cost of $300 million, Nestle recently announced its sixth factory with a $70 million investment ($520 million total) and LG is doubling its manufacturing base in the country. These investments represent confidence in a burgeoning economy which has put improving the education sector at the forefront if its economic strategy.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a form of evaluation used to measure the quality, equity and efficiency of school systems. It was first performed in 2000 and has been repeated every three years since. Each country that participates enlists half a million students from randomly selected schools to answer written and multiple-choice questions in a two-hour test. Its aim is to provide comparable data with a view to enabling countries to improve their education policies. In the last set of results for 2015, Vietnam placed 8th. That’s higher than the US, Hong Kong, the UK and Australia.

To find out more about business investment opportunities in the Vietnamese education sector, contact Cornfield & Partners at info@cornfieldpartners.com, or you can
call us on +44 (0) 20 7692 0873.

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