On November 11^th, 2019, the meeting between the Embassy of The Argentine Republic in Vietnam and HUST took place at HUST campus. In addition to the FOAR-funded project by School of Biotechnology and Food Technology, the two parties discussed about further collaboration, especially in agriculture and biotechnology field.

At the very beginning, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chu Ky Son, Dean of School of Biotechnology and Food Technology (SBFT) thanked the Embassy of The Argentine Republic in Vietnam about the great support for the project.

The Argentine had funded the project by providing travel cost for both sides to visit their countries and exchange knowledge. Last May, two Vietnamese professors had spent one week at Argentine to discover the need to set up collaboration for dairy products. This week, SBFT has invited two INTA staffs to the HUST conference: “Quality management and food safety” on Nov 13-15, 2019. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Minh Son, President of HUST affirmed: “We are an agricultural country, so we always wonder not only about the productivity of food manufacturing but also about how to assure food quality and safety and bring the best food to people.”

“We are very proud to be here and very happy to exchange knowledge on this field because the two countries have many differences. Therefore, we together can develop further south-south collaboration in the future.”, happily said Prof. Dr. Adriana María Descalzo, Research Staff INTA and CONICET.

HE. Mr. Juan Carlos Valle Raleigh, the Argentine Ambassador to Vietnam, added that in Vietnam they had many projects going on about soil, animals or health… and partnered with many other institutions in Vietnam. Moreover, they hoped to further collaborate on student exchange and would want to send some students to Vietnam to learn more.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chu Ky Son warmly welcomed the idea of exchange programs: “We have lots of students from Australia and European countries to come here, spending 3-6 months in our lab to research. This exchange programs are not only for staffs but also students.”. Dr. Bui Thi Ngoc Thuy, Deputy Head of External Affairs Office, on the other hand, hoped to be the bridge between HUST’s professors and the Embassy on other fields that they are launching projects at.

Thu Hà

Picture: Tuan Dung