An agreement on technological cooperation in irrigation and drainage, protection of marine resources, and responsible management of the fisheries sector has been signed by the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).
The signing ceremony (Photo: VNA)
The signing ceremony took place at the 5th Japan-Vietnam Agricultural Cooperation Dialogue and a public - private agricultural cooperation forum.
At the dialogue, Vietnamese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong and Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Kotaro Nogami reviewed cooperation results between the two ministries in the past period, and agreed to jointly implement the Mid-term and long-term Vision on agricultural cooperation between the two countries in the 2020 -2024 period, concentrating on completing agricultural infrastructure, including irrigation works, infrastructure facilities to support agricultural value chains, protecting the environment and responding to climate change, reported VNA.
Especially, the two sides will also work closely to promote investment by private enterprises and apply technological advances to improve the governance capacity of agricultural value chains.
Japan will support Vietnam in policy-making and training high-quality human resources in agriculture, expanding pilot models and, tapping potential and strengths of localities.
Cuong said the two sides can promote two-way trade in agricultural products as Japan is a country with a very modern and potential agriculture.
Japan has been developing deeply and modernly in technology, agricultural processing and it is also a good human resources training centre for agricultural development.
Vietnam-China border economic and trade fair
The 20th Vietnam-China border economic and trade fair has opened at Kim Thanh Exhibition and Convention Centre in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai and the Hekou International Exhibition Centre in China’s Yunnan province.
The 20th Vietnam-China border economic and trade fair (Photo: laocai.gov.vn)
The fair is organised by the Trade Promotion Agency under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), the Lao Cai Provincial People’s Committee, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade in Yunnan.|
The event aims to promote socio-economic exchange between Lao Cai and Yunnan provinces, helping to foster trade linkages, connect local markets of Vietnam with those in Yunnan, thus promoting import and export activities through the Lao Cai border gate, solving difficulties facing businesses from both sides in the context of complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the conference, organisations and enterprises of the two sides signed 18 pairs of economic contracts totaling 758.9 million USD on import and export of non-ferrous metals, fertilizers, chemicals, agricultural products, and aquatic products.
First clinical tests of locally-produced COVID-19 vaccine get underway
The Military Medical Academy have come together with Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC to recruit volunteers who can participate in human trials of a Vietnamese-made novel coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine named Nanocovax, with the first stage of clinical tests.
According to Minister of Health Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Long, in the previous research, Nanocovax has undergone all necessary safety tests, with positive results being collected after conducting trials on monkey and mice.
Young people register for COVID-19 vaccine trials (Source: moh.gov.vn)
Following this, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology announced the test results of Nanocovax, with a vaccinated hamster being exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus for a 14-day period but not becoming infected with the virus and remaining negative, reported VOV.
This led to the National Ethical Council for Biomedical Research convening a meeting on December 9 in order to evaluate the research documents from the first and second clinical trial phases for local COVID-19 vaccine Nanocovax.
The Military Medical Academy is therefore anticipated to launch the next stage of the clinical trial programme for the COVID-19 vaccine on December 10, whilst also announcing the recruitment of volunteers to participate in future research activities.
The first vaccine shot is set to be given to volunteers who are eligible to participate in the first phase of research on December 17.
To ensure the safety of the volunteers during the trials, the first three people will be injected with a 25 microrgram (mcg) dose of the trial vaccine, with their health conditions being assessed following a period of 72 hours.
The next dose of the experimental vaccine, along with the number of participants in the scheme, will be decided after the results of the first dose given to the three people have been reported. The experimental period for each participant in the programme will be approximately 56 days.
Nanogen initially started their COVID-19 vaccine project in January. Immediately after being licensed by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Nanogen moved to invest a sum of roughly VND200 billion to build three factories, whilst also purchasing all necessary materials for research activities./.