On the afternoon of January 6, 2023 at Kyushu promotion center Hanoi, Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA) signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with Kamichiku Corporation Japan in Vietnam under the witness of Mr. Shige Watanabe, Deputy Ambassador of Japan in Vietnam. Attending the signing ceremony, on behalf of Kamichiku Corporation, there were Mr. Kamimura Masashi, Chairman of Kamichiku Corporation; from VNUA, there were Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan, Secretary of the Party Committee, VNUA’s Director of the Academy; Prof. Dr. Tran Duc Vien, Chairman of the Science and Training Council, Dr. Vu Ngoc Huyen, VNUA’s Vice President, Director of the Center for Human Resource Supply, Assoc. Dr. Pham Kim Dang, Dean of the Faculty of Animal Science.
During the signing ceremony, the two parties recognized that Vietnam is a country with rapid economic growth and is expected to be a country with a large amount of beef consumption. In such a context, the cooperation between VNUA and Kamichiku Corporation, a leading Japanese company in the field of agriculture which is operating a closed value chain from breeding and feed production to operating a restaurant chain, is a great opportunity to develop the agriculture sector, especially cow farming, in Vietnam. The contents of cooperation that have been agreed by the two parties included: technical cooperation to improve productivity and quality of Vietnamese beef and replication and transferring of technology to businesses and localities across the country; cooperation in the production of cattle feed, focusing on cow feed from Vietnam's raw materials, including agricultural by-products, to meet the needs of domestic and export markets; cooperation in commercializing the beef value chain under a pilot closed production model from "farm to fork" at VNUA and towards expanding the model nationwide; cooperation in training and exchange of human resources between the two countries; promoting the cooperation between VNUA and Kagoshima University, Japan to develop VNUA’s student exchange program combined with internship at Kamichiku's farms.
Speaking at the ceremony, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan, Secretary of the Party Committee, VNUA’s President, expressed her pleasure to cooperate with Kamichiku Vietnam Corporation and shared that the cooperation relationship between VNUA and Japan has existed since the 1990s; and since then, Japanese organizations and institutions have become strategic and long-term partners of the university. The cooperation agreements with Japanese universities/institutes/organizations/enterprises have helped VNUA to train human resources, specifically more than 115 doctorates and masters, hundreds/thousands of VNUA’s students, staff, lecturers and researchers being able to study, exchange, do internship and research in Japan as well as many Japanese officials and students visiting VNUA to study, exchange and do collaborative research. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan affirmed that this cooperation would open up many development opportunities, helping to reach new and practical achievements in training cooperation, human resource supply in beef cattle breeding, research and transfer of livestock technology, animal feed and beef value chain commercialization in Vietnam.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan, Secretary of the Party Committee, VNUA’s President, speaks at the signing ceremony
Mr. Masashi Uemura, Director of Kamichiki Corporation in Vietnam, also expressed his pleasure and honor to cooperate with VNUA. In his speech, he stated, "Along with the enhancement of Vietnamese beef culture, we also believe that this will be a good opportunity to reach out to foreign markets".
Mr. Kamimura Masashi, Director of Kamichiku Corporation in Vietnam, speaks at the ceremony
During the ceremony, Mr. Shige Watanabe, Deputy Ambassador of Japan in Vietnam highly appreciated the potential cooperation between Kamichiku Vietnam Corporation and VNUA; he believed in the efforts of the two parties for a sustainable cooperation relationship, promoting the strengths of both units; and he said this cooperation activity would begin a series of activities in 2023, the 50th anniversary year (1973-2023) of sustainable cooperation between the two governments of Vietnam and Japan.
The signing ceremony of cooperation agreements between VNUA and Kamichiku Vietnam Corporation takes place successfully
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan, Secretary of the Party Committee, VNUA’s President, gives gifts to the representative of Kamichiku Corporation