VietNamNet Bridge – More and more foreign investors in the educational sector have decided to expand their operations in provinces instead of major cities like Ha Noi and HCM City.

The KinderWorld Education Group of Singapore plans to build two educational facilities, the Singapore-Viet Nam International School and the Outward Bround Viet Nam School, in Binh Dinh Province's Quy Nhon City. — Photo binhdinh.gov.vn

Investors cite economic development potential and favourable conditions offered by authorities in these provinces and cities as key factors in their decision. Most recently, the KinderWorld Education Group of Singapore plans to build two educational facilities, the Singapore-Viet Nam International School and the Outward Bround Viet Nam School, in Binh Dinh Province's Quy Nhon City.

The Singapore-Viet Nam International School will run international-standard courses for learners from the first to 12th grades, while the Outward Bound Viet Nam School aims to enable learners at all ages to foster personal development, interpersonal, leadership and survival skills.

KinderWorld's chairman Ricky Tan Teck Yong said Binh Dinh Province had high economic development potential, especially in the future.

Last October, the group also received an investment license to build a US$17 million Outward Bound Viet Nam and ecotourism project in the northern province of Vinh Phuc, which serves as an outdoor adventure education model, the first FDI project in the educational sector in the province.

The chairman of Vinh Phuc Province's People's Committee, Phung Quang Hung, said the project would contribute greatly to develop the service sector, including educational and tourism services.

The province plans to create favourable conditions for the group to conduct studies to seek sites to build a Viet Nam-Singapore International School and Pegasus University.

Also in last October, the northern province of Hung Yen granted an investment licence for Japanese investors to build the Tokyo Medical University in the Ecopark urban area.

The $20 million project will be the first international medical university in Viet Nam equipped with modern facilities and is expected to train about 1,500 students a year.

In addition to focusing on majors like nursing, functional rehabilitation, physiotherapy and orthotics and prosthetics, the university will conduct scientific research based on medical technology applications and provide educational support services.

By the end of 2014, there were 204 FDI projects involved in the educational sector in Viet Nam, with a total registered capital of $825.5 million, according to the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

VNS