On March 26, 2021, at the 3rd floor hall, G6 building, VNU, IFI held the opening ceremony of the 2020-2021 school year and awarded master's degrees to graduates.

This is the particularly important event to mark a year of IFI's successful operation and is also the first year the opening ceremony was held in the form of direct and online coordination with the participation of academic education partners and embassies, international organizations and partners, students in domestic and foreign.

The Opening Ceremony of the New Academic year 2020-2021

Attending the ceremony, from international organizations, there were: Mr. Chay Navuth, Ambassador of the Royal Embassy of in Cambodia Vietnam; Ms. Irmina Perojo Bellido De Luna, Counselor, Embassy of Cuba in Vietnam; Mr. Mohamed Bahjat Abdallah, First Secretary, Embassy of the State of Palestine; Ms. Aygun Samadova, Counselor of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Vietnam; Mr. Ryom Myong Nam, Counselor of the Embassy of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in Vietnam; Mr. Chu To-Ming, Head of Education and Science, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vietnam; Ms. Lê Tuyết Nhung, Representative of the Wallonie-Bruxelles Delegation (Belgium) to Vietnam.

The academic education partners who have attended online are: Mr. Jean-Marc Ogier, President of La Rochelle University; Ms. Anne GIROIR FENDLER, Vice Director of Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University and its leadership representative; Mr. Xavier Leroux, Director of University of Toulon; Mr. Elian Pilvin, Director of EM Normandie Business school and Professor Paul Griffiths, Program Director Fintech from Oxford, UK; Mr. Mai Nam Thắng, Project Director of Vietnam.

From VNU, the ceremony was attended by: Assoc.Prof.Dr. Phạm Bảo Sơn, Vice President of VNU; and the participation of representatives of universities and research institutes in VNU.

On the IFI side, there were Mr. Ngô Tự Lập, President of Scientific Council, Director, and Mr. Hồ Tường Vinh, Vice President of Scientific Council.

There is also direct and online participation of strategic partners, media organizations, domestic and foreign faculty, more than 200 students and alumni of master's programs from more than 20 countries. In particular, the ceremony also has the participation of new students of the 1^st Corhort of the Master in Banking, Finance and Financial Technology (Fintech) program.

Assoc.Prof. Dr. Pham Bao Son, Vice President of VNU congratulated IFI on the occasion of the 26th opening ceremony, an event marking a new development step of the Institute. Facing difficulties caused by the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, VNU leaders highly appreciated IFI's initiatives and efforts in helping students to complete the Master program. He emphasized that IFI had a suitable long-term strategy and a modern and dynamic model for the Institute to develop rapidly and sustainably. In addition to the success of the Master and short-term programs, IFI has also made great strides in research, start-up and technology transfer with a wide variety of high quality products. In particular, in the past 2020, the 2^nd Franconomics organized by IFI in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French International Organization (OIF) has made a great reputation in the Francophonie Community.

Dr. Ngo Tu Lap, President of the Scientific Council, Director sent greetings to all new IFI students in the academic year 2020-2021: “On behalf of IFI’s Board of Directors, I’d like to congratulate the students who have successfully completed their programs despite all the huge difficulties caused by the pandemics. I’d like to welcome and extend my felicitation to the new students. From today on you are members of IFI’s intellectual community, a wonderful community of young men and women who come from many countries, the talented and ambitious people, who believe strongly in the power and value of knowledge, friendship, and cultural diversity.”

The opening ceremony ended with a warm exchange party, in an atmosphere of joy and excitement to welcome the new school year with many development plans of all IFI staff and students.