On the afternoon of February 14, 2020, Prof. Dr. Pham Van Cuong, Vice President of Vietnam National University of Agriculture warmly welcomed the delegation of Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) led by Mr. WATANABE Yasuo, Deputy Head of Division of Overseas Cooperation and Investment, Department of International Cooperation. Accompanying him were officials from the Agriculture Department, the Food Technology Department, the Japan JAS Management Fund and the Fukuoka Regional Center.

 At the meeting, Prof. Dr Pham Van Cuong introduced an overview of the university and the results of projects funded by the Japanese Government (JICA, JSPS, SATREPS) from 1998 to the present. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy, Director of the International Cooperation Office (ICO) and an expert in the field of post-harvest preservation also mentioned that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) - through cooperation with MAFF - assigned VNUA to implement the project “Developing human resources for food-related fields through ASEAN partner universities (formally called HRD project) coordinated by MAFF and the ASEAN Secretariat. The project has been implemented through two periods of 2015-2017 and 2018-2020 with series of domestic training activities and study tours in Japan. From 2016 to the present, VNUA annually organizes training courses on Food Value Chain, which attracted an average of 150-200 officials, students, cooperative staff, enterprises in the field of agriculture production and food processing. By the end of 2019, in the framework of this project, in parallel with the training course on food value chains, VNUA organized a training course on Food Analysis with the participation of nearly 90 delegates. In February 2-3/2020, VNUA will organize training courses on Food Safety Management with two themes HACCP and food system assessment. The training courses will provide for 40 participants from VNUA and the public and private sector in Vietnam. Especially, the Japanese Quality Management Association will grant an international recognition - one of the prerequisites for becoming a JFS inspector - to participants who fully completes the course and passes the test. This is a valuable opportunity for participants.

Hợp tác với Bộ Nông, Lâm, Ngư nghiệp Nhật Bản về phát triển các hệ thống cấp chứng nhận an toàn thực phẩm quốc tế

On this occasion, the two sides also exchanged more details on the development of a system of national and international certification agencies on food safety management such as JAS, HACCP, JSF, GAP, ... in Japan and Vietnam. Before this meeting, MAFF and MARD discussed that Japan will help Vietnam develop and complete the JFS certification system in the next 1-2 years after the consultation process from relevant ministries and agencies. Given high capacity and experience, VNUA hopes that the two ministries will continue support VNUA to have access to update knowledge of JAS, HACCP, JSF, GAP, .....

VNUA agreed to be the focal point to organize field visits, field surveys for the MAFF team and to support this process. Hopefully, with the help of Japan, Vietnam will gradually improve the international certification system to effectively serve the safety control of agricultural and food quality throughout the country

Hợp tác với Bộ Nông, Lâm, Ngư nghiệp Nhật Bản về phát triển các hệ thống cấp chứng nhận an toàn thực phẩm quốc tế