Dear colleagues,

Please find below an exciting announcement from the Embassy and Consulate of Canada in Vietnam. We would appreciate if you could circulate this news with your alumni contacts.

Best,
The BCCIE Team

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The Embassy and Consulate General of Canada in Vietnam are building a Canadian Alumni Network that will bring together Vietnamese from all walks of life who have one important link: a Canadian education. They are hoping that Vietnamese alumni from BC institutions will join this network to help strengthen the important people-to-people links between Canada and Vietnam and encourage others to choose Canada as their study destination. The Canadian Alumni Network in Vietnam will hold its inaugural events in March 2016, in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Details will be forthcoming. If you are interested in participating in this new and exciting network, let them know by sending an email message to HOCHI.Alumni@international.gc.ca.
 
We will be happy to share with you the list of your own graduates who have joined the network, with updated coordinates. We would like to thank you in advance for your cooperation and please let us know if you have any questions or comments. 

Additional background information:

Vietnam is increasingly becoming an important recruitment market for institutions across Canada. In 2014, about 5,600 Vietnamese students were studying at various institutions in Canada, making Vietnam ranked 1^st in South East Asia and 11^th worldwide for sending international students to Canada. Every year, more than 1,300 Vietnamese students get their study permits to study and do research in Canada. A significant number of Vietnamese students have graduated from Canada and returned to Vietnam, applying their knowledge to various fields and contributing to their home country. The number of these graduates is not yet known to us and no official alumni network is active in Vietnam to be leveraged to support our efforts in promoting Canadian education, strengthening Canada-Vietnam people-to-people ties, and more broadly, promoting Canada writ large.

The Canadian Alumni Network in Vietnam will be a platform for promoting the shared interest and benefits of every member, i.e., connecting and creating further links that are both meaningful and beneficial to their own business and careers. The network will include a variety of contacts i) people working in the private sector, ii) decision makers working in the government, iii) academia working in the education and research institutions, iv) and graduates returning home. Although the network is targeted to individuals of Vietnamese origin/citizenship, membership is not limited.