Representatives from ministries and agencies at the opening ceremony of the new laboratory at the Reference Testing and Agrifood Quality Consultancy (RETAQ) Centre. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (MARD) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on July 20 held aceremony to hand over equipment and officially open a new laboratory at theReference Testing and Agrifood Quality Consultancy (RETAQ) Centre.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture andRural Development Tran Thanh Nam spoke highly of Japan's support to Vietnam in theexpansion of the food inspection system and improvements in testing capacitythrough the provision of testing equipment and facilities.
RETAQ Centre now has the most advanced equipment inVietnam, he said, adding that its improved testing capacity can help businesses producing and exporting agricultural and fisheries productsto improve their capacity and product quality.
Japanese Deputy Ambassador to Vietnam Watanabe Shige saidthat food safety is not only an important issue to Vietnam but also a majorglobal one.
He expressed his hope that the laboratory will help Vietnam improve the quality of its agricultural fisheries products to meet international standards.
In 2019, the Japanese side started to provide 10.9 million USD as grants to Vietnam to invest in equipment andfacilities for RETAQ Centre's laboratory which offers services in food safetytesting, consulting, and certification.
Representatives from MARD and JICA sign the R/D. (Photo: VNA)On this occasion, the two sides signed a Record of Discussion (R/D) approving a project on strengthening capacity fortesting, verifying, and consulting food quality and safety with a total budgetof about 345 million yen using Japanese official development assistance (ODA)./.
