Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Yohei Sasakawa noted, the Nippon Foundation had provided scholarships for tens of Vietnamese students for nearly 40 years.  Many alumni of this scholarship program have been holding important positions in agencies and organizations in many countries. It has also implemented socio-economic development projects and financially supported disabled people in Vietnam with a total of 30 million USD.

Mr. Yohei Sasakawa expressed his joy when Vietnam and Japan upgraded their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2023, and affirmed their obligation to further develop this new partnership framework. He believed that both sides reaffirmed their commitment to fostering close ties and trust, not only between the two Governments but also among all the sectors and peoples of both countries, through various bilateral cooperation, support and exchange activities.

The Chairman of the Nippon Foundation highly appreciated VNU's efforts in promoting negotiations and proposing plans for managing and using the fund to award scholarships to outstanding graduate students in accordance with the philosophy of the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research and Nippon Foundation, jointly contributing to the effectiveness and pervasive impact of the global Sylff Scholarship Program.

VNU President Le Quan was happy to express his sincere thanks to Mr. Yohei Sasakawa and the Nippon Foundation for their support and cooperation with VNU. As a pioneer in the nation’s education system, VNU has actively collaborated with domestic and international organizations, especially Japanese partners like the Nippon Foundation. This collaboration involves learning from experiences related to innovation, entrepreneurship and impactful research activities within the region and globally as well as fostering university-business connections, student exchanges and support for training young faculty members. This is a stepping stone for VNU to advance and build a leading research, startup and innovation ecosystem for the country.

VNU President Le Quan believed that the Sylff Program combined with VNU's Young Talent Incubation Scholarship Program would contribute to strongly spreading the spirit of learning and research among young researchers, thereby attracting, nurturing, training and fostering excellent human resources, contributing to VNU's mission of becoming an excellent international university.

In the coming time, VNU aims to further strengthen the cooperative relationship between itself and the Nippon Foundation across all fields and activities that the Foundation supports, particularly in research, scientific and technological applications to develop the potential of both parties to the full. VNU President Le Quan also hoped that Mr. Yohei Sasakawa and the Nippon Foundation would strongly support VNU Vietnam Japan University - a symbol of cooperation between Vietnam and Japan in training high quality human resources.

The Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (Sylff) is a collaborative initiative of the Nippon Foundation, the sponsor, and the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research, the program manager. The Sylff was inspired by the vision of Ryoichi Sasakawa, a benefactor and the foundation chairman of the Nippon Foundation initiated in 1987 to support social sciences and humanity graduates. In Vietnam, VNU, Hanoi and VNU, Ho Chi Minh city are honoured to be among the 69 prestigious universities from 44 countries receiving scholarship sponsorship from this fund.

Director of VNU Science and Technology Department, Chairwoman of VNU Development Fund Tran Thi Thanh Tu said that in 2023, VNU, Hanoi and VNU, Ho Chi Minh city signed a new scholarship agreement with the Nippon Foundation and the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research. The two national universities are authorized by the Nippon Foundation to manage the Sylff Scholarship Program. Under the new agreement, scholarship recipients at VNU include social sciences and humanity research graduates or natural science graduates engaged in applied research on solutions to social issues.

Nguyen Thien Phuong Thao, majoring in Environmental Resources Management and Pham Thi Hong, majoring in Solid State Physics from VNU University of Science are the 2023 – 2024 academic year receivers of the Sylff scholarships, each valued at 100 million VND. The research topics of the two scholarship awardees are highly applicable to solving such social issues as livelihood, environmental protection, and sustainable development. Both research graduates have demonstrated leadership potential in their respective fields, particularly in guiding interdisciplinary research to address common human challenges.