AMERICAN UNIVERSITY PLANNED IN HCMC

By Quoc Hung and Thai Thanh

(SGT-HCMC, HANOI) American Pacific University is seeking approval for a project to set up a university in HCMC, said an official with the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).
Nguyen Xuan Trung, deputy head of the ministry’s foreign investment department, said his department had completed the appraisal of the 100% US-owned project.
"We are now awaiting the prime minister’s approval", he told the Daily.
Another ministry official said the project could get the prime minister’s approval because the country was promoting public participation in education.
If approved, the project would be the first American venture in education, in which Vietnam needed investment, the official said.
The project, expected to run for 50 years, comprises two phases with a combined investment capital of US$35 million, said an official at the Saigon South Investment and Construction Authority.
He said in the first phase the American investor would lease and upgrade a building in the city. The US$2-million school would house 500 to 1,000 students and run over four years, he said.
The remaining US$35 million would be spent on 10 hectares in the city’s newly urbanized area Saigon South, including lecture halls, a dormitory, cafeteria, sports center, bookstore and parking lot.
Students will be trained at the university for two years before being sent to associated universities in the US to complete their studies.
The official said the university would organize examinations for Vietnamese students who wished to further their studies at American universities, not as freshmen.

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