Vietnam, in southeast Asia, has a population of over 97 million and an area four times the size of Ireland.
Ireland’s Embassy in Hanoi opened in 2005. The Embassy manages Ireland's relationships with Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
Vietnam’s economy is a development success story. Political and economic reforms in the 1980s saw a shift from a centrally planned to a market economy. This transformed the country from one of the poorest in the world to lower middle income status by 2016. Vietnam is hoping to achieve upper middle income status by 2030.
However, not everyone has benefitted equally from this growth. The Government reported in 2023 that 1.58 million households in Vietnam still live below the national poverty line.
There remains significant need in some regions of the country, in particular those with a relatively high percentage of ethnic minorities, who account for 15% of the national population but 79% of those living in poverty.
Ireland's work
Ireland’s development programme in Vietnam has two overarching goals:
- Promoting inclusive economic growth
- Reducing vulnerabilities and supporting the ‘furthest behind first’ in line with Ireland’s development assistance policy ‘A Better World’
Promoting inclusive economic growth
To achieve this objective, Ireland supports initiatives in higher education, agri-food and good governance.
- Higher Education
Under the Vietnam Ireland Bilateral Education Exchange (VIBE) programme, Ireland supports collaborative projects between Vietnamese and Irish education and research institutions, focusing on curriculum development, joint research and people-to-people exchanges.
Under the Ireland Fellows Programme (IFP), a number of master’s degree scholarships are awarded to Vietnamese students each year.
- Agri-food
Ireland works with Sustainable Food Systems Ireland (SFSI) under the Ireland Vietnam Agri-food Partnership (IVAP) to support Vietnam’s food systems transformation. IVAP focuses on improving sustainability, quality, safety and innovation in the agri-food sector, and is implemented in cooperation with Vietnam’s Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, and of Planning and Investment, the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and various other Vietnamese and Irish stakeholders.
The Embassy also supports a sustainable agriculture project in Yen Bai province, working with smallholders to implement sustainable farming practices.
- Governance
Ireland works to promote good governance in Vietnam through support for a major United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) survey, the Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI). PAPI analyses public opinion on the quality of public services across all 63 Provinces in Vietnam, and supports provinces in improving public service delivery and increasing representation for marginalised groups.
Ireland also supports improved women’s political participation in four provinces in Vietnam through training and networking activities for female political representatives and candidates, and advocacy efforts to improve women’s representation.
Reducing vulnerabilities and supporting the ‘Furthest Behind’.
To achieve this objectives, Ireland supports intiatives for ethnic minorities, nutrition and humanitarian mine action.
- Ethnic Minorities
Support for ethnic minority communities has been a longstanding part of Ireland’s programme of assistance in Vietnam. Since the inception of the programme, Ireland has invested some €70 million in this area.
The programme focusses on community-based infrastructure management, climate and disaster resilient livelihood initiatives, women’s economic initiatives, and support for people living with disabilities.
- Nutrition
Ireland supports better nutrition outcomes for women and children in Vietnam through a programme focussed on maternal, infant and young child nutrition, implemented in both rural and urban hospitals countrywide. A key aspect of this programme is the transfer of expertise and learning from Vietnam to Cambodia and Laos.
- Humanitarian Mine Action
Ireland is committed to contributing to a safer Vietnam through supporting a humanitarian mine action programme in the central regions of the country. This work has been a core part of the Embassy’s programme in Vietnam for over a decade. Ireland has been working on clearance of mines and unexploded remnants of war and mine risk education in the region since 1998.