Vietnam's Prime Minister on KI visit
On Thursday afternoon, paediatrician and professor of global paediatric health Tobias Alfvén was asked if Karolinska Institutet could receive a visit from Vietnam's prime minister less than a day later. The answer was yes and the meeting resulted in concrete actions for the future.
There had been discussions about a visit for a long time, but the final decision came less than a day before.
How come you were asked?
“I have previously lived in and been active in Vietnam, so it was not so strange. In my research, I have focused on reducing mortality and morbidity among children in low- and middle-income countries such as Vietnam, but also Uganda, Indonesia, Nigeria and Somalia among others. But I really want to emphasise that the visit became a reality thanks to long-term work by, among others, Mariam Claeson, Susanna Myrnerts Höök and Nicolas Pejovic in my research group,” says Tobias Alfvén, professor at the Department of Global Public Health.
What did Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh want to discuss with KI and you?
“He wanted to discuss future opportunities for collaborations to further strengthen the work on public health in Vietnam and in the region, but also opportunities for Vietnamese students and researchers to collaborate more closely with us at Karolinska Institutet.”
Did the meeting have any concrete outcomes?
“This time, it was actually unusually concrete when the Prime Minister concluded with three points: he expressed joy and gratitude for fifty years of cooperation and support from Sweden and KI, he pointed out that Vietnam invests in research that is crucial for health and medical care, and he wants to change and improve health and medical care in the country. He gave the ambassadors the task of taking that work further.”
"We have been working with Phu San Hospital in Hanoi for several years, and that is the very heart of our Vietnamese commitment.”
Also present at the meeting, where Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh was able to practice cardiopulmonary resuscitation on newborns, was also the business leader and industrialist Carl Bennet, who over the years has made several research projects at Karolinska Institutet possible, and who supports the research collaboration with Phu San Hospital in Hanoi.