Representatives from more than 20 French non-governmental health careorganisations attended a conference on France-Vietnam health carecooperation held in Ho Chi Minh City on March 21.

Over 100 Vietnamese and French doctors and health experts at the eventdiscussed four main topics, including collaboration in improvingmaternal and infant health, preventive medicine, training and research,and forensic medicine.

Dr. Gildas Tréguier fromAPPEL-Lorient said the conference gave a chance for both sides to shareexperience in health coordination over the past years, thus seeking waysto remove all existing obstacles and increase efficiency of theiraffiliation in the future.

In paediatrics medicine, theFrance-Vietnam health cooperation programmes in 2015 will focus onexchanging technical experience among senior professionals, he said.

Meanwhile, the programme will continue with humanitarian activitiestargeting vulnerable group, with special strategies on malformationprevention and screening, as well as improvement in access to healthcare services for poorest households.

At the sametime, Assistant Prof. Ngo Minh Xuan, Vice Headmaster of Pham Ngoc ThachMedical University, said that in the past four decades, Vietnam andFrance have enjoyed effective partnership in health care.

Following the health cooperation deal signed in 1993, more than 2,000Vietnamese doctors have been trained in France ’s hospitals, henoted.

According to the French Ministry of HigherEducation and Research , Vietnam ranks ninth in the number ofstudents studying in France with 6,295 students registered in the2012-13 academic year. The figure has been stable since 2008, it said.-VNA