Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Friday, November 18, 2011

I would first like to thank Mr. Le Minh Tri, Vice-Chairman of the People’s Committee, as well as your staff, for your efforts in making my State visit to Vietnam an enjoyable one.

I have had the opportunity to meet with educators, government officials, students, business people and volunteers during my time here. This has given me a vivid picture of the relationship between Canada and Vietnam, as well as the type of smart and caring individuals you have in this country.

I have also been fortunate to have a delegation of Canadians accompany me during these visits, all of whom have proven themselves invaluable at raising important issues with their Vietnamese counterparts.

State visits such as this are so important to fostering dialogue, which I hope will continue long after I return to Canada.

Collaboration, after all, is one of the cornerstones of any foreign relationship.

I am reminded of the words of Ken Dryden who, in his book Becoming Canada, wrote of the need to think globally and to work together for a better future:

“To think about Canada, we need to think about the world. And the world’s future, it is clear, will depend on learning and getting along.”

Canada needs to partner with countries like Vietnam in a variety of spheres to succeed in a globalized world. But we also need to keep our minds open so that we may learn from each other.

Canada shares Vietnam’s commitments in areas such as innovation, education and industry, which add strength to our already robust relationship.

On innovation, Vietnam has been a leader. Just looking at Ho Chi Minh City, we see how much emphasis Vietnam places on innovation. As a centre of business, and specifically of high tech, the city stands as a reminder of what innovation can accomplish.

In education as well, Vietnam has excelled, and I have seen this first-hand.

It was a privilege to address students, their family and faculty at both Hanoi National University of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Ho Chi Minh University of Industry; both schools give a clear indication of Vietnam’s commitment to fostering a society of learning.

I also was pleased to learn that universities here and in Canada have partnered in a variety of ways to enhance the experience for students, including those travelling between our countries for an international education. As a former educator myself, I applaud this and hope to see more of these types of exchanges in the future.

Finally, as a result of Vietnam’s strengths, a variety of Canadian companies—such as Talisman, Manulife, CAE and Bombardier—are conducting business here. They know the advantage of investing in countries that place high value on education and innovation. As a result, our trade has tripled in the last five years.

Let me tell you a story about education, innovation and collaboration from my own experience. For many wonderful years I was privileged to serve as principal of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and one of the projects I worked on during my time there was to help establish a professional master’s degree program in engineering. The program was developed along with five other regional universities and the local aerospace industry, which had set us in motion with a specific problem: in the absence of a sufficient number of qualified Canadian employees, companies were being forced to recruit talent from abroad. Furthermore, after gaining valuable work experience in Quebec, many of those foreign employees soon returned to their home countries or left for other destinations, leaving the aerospace sector facing a constant shortage of workers.

The solution was to cultivate a workforce in Canada able to fill those jobs. Once this goal was identified, we worked towards it through ongoing communication and close collaboration. This was a key component in the remarkable success of Quebec’s aerospace industry.

The lessons from this experience are clear, and they underline the importance of talking to each other and identifying strengths and weaknesses within our communities.

But even though our ties are strong between institutions, government and businesses, it is really at the individual level that our co-operation flourishes.

Throughout this visit, I have been talking about the diplomacy of knowledge, which works beyond the government tête-à-têtes.

This type of diplomacy encourages the trade of ideas, as opposed to goods, and it happens because Canadians and Vietnamese, like all of you here, have chosen to talk to, learn from and work with one another.

Canada is home to 250 000 people of Vietnamese origin, who every day add their distinctiveness to our own society. Canadians also call Vietnam home; in fact, some have even returned to Vietnam from Canada, utilizing their international experience to help build the economy.

And that is what I want to urge you to continue to do. Keep promoting Canada-Vietnam partnerships. Keep encouraging people to volunteer in their community. Keep up the exchange of ideas, innovation and people between our countries.

Most importantly, let us build on our nearly 40 years of diplomatic relations, because we are stronger in our collaboration than we are in isolation.

Thank you.