A hi-tech resource centre, set up here jointly under a USD 2 million grant by India to Vietnam to train students and professionals in IT-related areas, was inaugurated today by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna.

"I am delighted to inaugurate a modern temple of learning, the Vietnam-India Advanced Resource Centre in Information and Communication Technology," said Krishna, who launched it along with Chairman of the People's Committee of Hanoi Nguyen The Thao and Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son.

"India and Vietnam emphasise on development of knowledge-based industries to meet the demands of 21st century. This calls for development of highly skilled human resources. We are happy to cooperate with Vietnam in this endeavour," he said.

The hi-tech centre, the largest project so far under bilateral assistance, will provide a wide range of training in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), application of e-learning technology in education, infrastructure for web portal creation, service infrastructure for GIS application development, turn key support for e-governance applications and digital library infrastructure for use by libraries.

It is expected to train more than 2000 government officials and students in various IT-related areas.

The Centre will train those students and professionals who aspire to make a career in the field of ICT and serve as a hub for the training of the trainers as well as, help teachers to learn fundamentals of IT and IT-based teaching tools.

It will also offer specially designed training programme to increase IT literacy amongst officials working in Vietnam Government, besides providing specialised assistance in identifying e-governance solution for various departments.

At the inauguration ceremony, Krishna said the cooperation in the 21st century between the two countries follows in the footsteps of their great leaders, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and President Ho Chi Minh and Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Pham Van dong.

"The Information Technology sector in India has grown from strength to strength in recent years. The entire gamut of Information Technology related services - including software, data and business processing services and IT enabled services - have emerged as the backbone of the Services sector of our economy," he said.

India has worked closely with Vietnam in the areas of capacity-building and human resource development through several projects, the minister said.

"I am glad that we have together established a state-of-the-art ICT facility in Hanoi. I would like to compliment the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing of India for setting up the single largest capacity-building project under bilateral assistance to Vietnam from India."

Krishna voiced confidence that this Centre will become a "lasting symbol" of bilateral Strategic Partnership.