The Business Times, Singapore, August 19, 2004
By CHEN HUIFEN
IN HO CHI MINH CITY
BARELY a few months after the completion of its new school building in Vietnam, Singapore's PSB Corp is already planning to invest another $3 million to set up more educational and training centres in other parts of the country.
PSB Corp, which runs the education services provider PSB Academy in Singapore, yesterday revealed its expansion plans at the official opening of its school building in Ho Chi Minh City. Called the Cetana PSB International College, it was formed this year following a partnership agreement in March with Cetana Vietnam Company.
According to Cetana Vietnam general director Mohan Coomaraswamy, the new centre has already enrolled more than 100 students for its courses in Vietnam starting at the end of this month. It is aiming to recruit 200 students by the end of this year.
While expansion plans have yet to be outlined, Cetana is already eyeing Hanoi, Danang and Can Tho as future centre locations.
'PSB programmes are very skills and competency based, helping to prepare students for working life as well as giving them certification,' said Mr Coomaraswamy. 'Certainly as the white collar sector starts to grow, we will see demand for professional skilled workers increase.'
Housed in a 9,000 sq ft six-storey building, the $1 million Cetana PSB International College offers Vietnamese students certificate and diploma courses in business administration, HR management and hospitality management, travel and tourism courses, on top of English proficiency programmes. In time, PSB plans to introduce more choices, including IT, supervisory, project, logistics, and training management courses.
'Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing economies in Asean, and PSB Corp has identified Vietnam as a potential market as part of our regional expansion plans,' said PSB Corp Academy & Consulting Group senior vice-president Lee Beng Choo. 'With many under the age of 30, education is generally seen as key to a better quality life. Hence many are very determined and have a great desire to succeed.'
Before setting foot in Vietnam, PSB has been recruiting Vietnamese students for its programmes in Singapore since end-2002. With the latest move, it brings Singapore education directly to the Vietnamese.
'As one of the key government agencies contributing to Singapore's productivity growth and workforce development, we hope to be able to add value to Vietnam's growth through our practical and industry-relevant education,' said Ms Lee.
The partnership marks PSB's fourth overseas venture. It first embarked on a regionalisation strategy three years ago by entering China.
Besides PSB, two other education providers from Singapore celebrated their presence in Vietnam yesterday. Raffles Campus officially opened its Ho Chi Minh school and has committed US$250,000 over the next two years in Vietnam. RVMS International also has two education centres in Can Tho and Hanoi, and will be setting up at least another eight centres in Vietnam by 2007. A fourth company, Vietnam Singapore Investment & Consultancy, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Cisco Vietnam to invest about US$200,000 to set up a Cisco Technology Laboratory for Cisco training in security, wireless and Internet telephony.
