Speaking at the meeting, VNU President Le Quan said, implementing the important task noted by the Prime Minister at the meeting on November 28, 2021, in which, VNU determined to develop and enhance its position during the 2021 – 2025 period, especially promoting the construction of VNU in Hoa Lac following a university town “5-in-1” model, including a talent training centre; modern research and technology transfer centre; innovation centre at national and international level; smart and modern university town; centre for public-private partnership testing and research training. VNU determines to realize the expectations of the Party, State, Government and People for a leading innovative, green, smart and sustainable university town in Hoa Lac.

May 19, 2022 was a special milestone in VNU’s development history with the moving of its entire staff from Cau Giay district campus to Hoa Lac, which shows VNU’s determination to accelerate the construction of the component projects.

As scheduled, about 6,000 VNU’s students will be learning on Hoa Lac campus in the 2022-2023 academic year. Specifically, from September 2022, 450 first-year pedagogical students of VNU University of Education, 550 first-year students and some second-year students of VNU University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300 students of VNU Vietnam - Japan University and 600 VNU International School’s students will be learning in Hoa Lac. In addition, students of VNU University of Engineering and Technology and some other training units are expected to study some practical modules and take practicum in Hoa Lac.

Approved by the Prime Minister in October 2013, the VNU-in-Hoa Lac Construction Investment Project comprises 21 component projects to be built over more than 1,100 ha with a total investment of over 25 trillion VND (1 billion USD) and to be completed by 2025. Once fully completed, the campus will host about 60,000 students. However, to date, the cumulative disbursements for the project have only reached about 3,000 billion VND, showing a much slower project progress than planned.

The Vietnam National University Development Project – VNU-Hanoi loaned by the World Bank to improve the quality of training, scientific research and university administration of VNU, includes 3 components: Improving the quality of teaching and learning; Excellence in scientific research and technology transfer in key fields; Improving management capacity and project implementation management. The sub-project of VNU with a total budget of $125.18 million, of which, the capital from the World Bank is USD 100.87 million and the counterpart capital of the Vietnamese Government is $24.31 million. With this credit, VNU will invest in constructing three areas with a total area of 37.5 hectares out of VNU’s 1,000 hectares campus: Constructing 18 from-one-to-eight-floor buildings with classrooms, offices, libraries, laboratories, sports centres and experiments for teaching, learning and research; Constructing two wastewater treatment stations, a yard, internal roads, and a drainage system. The project will be implemented within 5 years, from 2021 to 2025. In 2022, the World Bank Project Management Board focuses on bidding packages for construction survey consultancy, construction drawing design and cost estimation. In addition, contractors for 3 construction and installation bidding packages and 2 supervision consultancy packages to start construction in November and December 2022 will be selected.

The construction investment project of VNU Vietnam-Japan University is one of the 23 component projects under the construction investment project of VNU in Hoa Lac. The project consists of two components: 51 hectares within the planned area of the VNU Project and 24 hectares within the Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park, using the Japanese ODA loans. VNU has also submitted a report to the Ministry of Construction and the Management Board of the Hi-tech Park for appraising the detailed planning project tasks of 1/500 scale. Currently, the relevant units are conducting the appraisal of this planning project.

At the meeting, VNU reported to the Interdisciplinary working group on accelerating the implementation of the Project, and made recommendations to the Prime Minister, ministries and branches to solve difficulties and obstacles for speeding up the implementation of Hoa Lac project.

The Deputy Prime Minister welcomed, acknowledged and highly appreciated the determination, efforts and responsibility of the VNU leadership for the staff move to Hoa Lac. Overcoming difficulties, VNU has continued to obtain many achievements, having high rankings in prestigious international rankings, and many top-notch scientific research achievements. The Deputy Prime Minister highly appreciated the responsibility of VNU Board of Presidents, as well as reiterated the Prime Minister's request to VNU to design the Hoa Lac project into a modern and smart university town.

After listening to the specific reports on the situation of site clearance, determining the boundaries of the entire project, progress of other construction items, etc., the Deputy Prime Minister asked to clearly define the specific responsibilities of each unit, to promote and accelerate the project implementation, strictly implement the Prime Minister's conclusions related to the VNU project in Hoa Lac.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam also emphasized the expansion and prioritized construction of lecture hall compounds. From now to the end of 2022, it is necessary to clearly define the boundaries of the project, completely settle the site clearance, and accelerate the project progress.