Vietnam National University of Agriculture participating in the project on strengthening human resources in the livestock industry in Vietnam with the financial support from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)

On the morning of June 17, 2021, the signing ceremony of the cooperation documents between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam (MARD) and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) took place in Hanoi.

At the ceremony, two documents were signed between MARD and KOICA. The first was a Memorandum of Understanding on bilateral cooperation to carry out the activity "Building a vision for medium and long-term cooperation for the agricultural sector between Vietnam and South Korea for the period of 2021-2025". The second document was the Minutes of discussion on the implementation of the project "Training program for the Vietnam National University of Agriculture to strengthen human resources in the livestock industry in Vietnam".

Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh said that after nearly 30 years of establishing diplomatic relations, Vietnam and South Korea had elevated the mutual relationship to the level of a strategic partnership and had achieved remarkable development in various fields such as trade, investment, culture, education, agriculture and rural development. South Korea has become the largest investor in Vietnam, with more than 9,000 investment projects and total accumulated investment capital reaching nearly 72 billion USD. Regarding trade, South Korea is Vietnam's third largest trading partner, with two-way trade turnover in 2020 reaching 66 billion USD.

The Deputy Minister said that in the past 10 years the livestock industry had developed at a high and stable rate and the growth in livestock value had been maintained at a high level. The proportion of livestock sector in the agricultural sector (livestock production, cultivation, and services) tends to increase, making an important contribution to maintaining the growth rate of the agricultural sector. More and more businesses and economic organizations are investing heavily in livestock development and processing livestock products using a closed chain model from farm to fork.

In order to meet the requirements of sustainable development, competition and international integration, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh said that “…it is necessary to prepare high-quality human resources to not only satisfy the needs of domestic development but also participate in the global labor market, support the livestock production and its stakeholders, and improve livestock management capacity by building 4.0 technology projects”.

Affirming the very important meaning of the project "Strengthening high-quality human resources for the livestock industry in Vietnam", Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh emphasized that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development would assign the Vietnam National University of Agriculture to effectively implement the project to improve the competitiveness and capacity of stakeholders in livestock industry, in order to contribute to the development of this sector in a sustainable way and to participate in the global value chain.

Highly appreciating the cooperation between the two countries over the years, Mr. Cho Han-Deog - Country Director of KOICA Office in Vietnam said that the agricultural cooperation between Vietnam and South Korea would achieve many more achievements in the future.

“Among the South Korean Government's support strategies for Vietnam, we consider agricultural development policies to be a very important part. Therefore, cooperation projects are increasingly diverse in form and expanded in scale" said Mr. Cho Han-Deog.

The country director of the KOICA office in Vietnam also affirmed that the cooperation documents signed today would be a premise to promote the development of agricultural cooperation between Vietnam and South Korea, and would help to train more high-quality potential employees to work in the livestock industry in Vietnam.

At the ceremony, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan - Secretary of the Party Committee, President of the Vietnam National University of Agriculture said that agriculture in general and animal husbandry in particular was still an industry that received great attention from central and local authorities in Vietnam. Therefore, in order to meet the requirements of sustainable development, competition and international integration, it is essential to prepare high-quality human resources that not only serve the needs of domestic development but also have the ability to participate in the global labor market, support the stakeholders in the livestock industry and improve the management of livestock sector using industry 4.0 technologies.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan affirmed that, along with the companion of KOICA Vietnam, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, experts from South Korea, Konkuk University, Korea, Vietnam National University of Agriculture would strive to implement the project effectively in order to successfully transfer the Korean businesses-educational institutes cooperation models and Korean educational models to the university with the aim of replicating and spreading these cooperation models to other universities in Vietnam as well as in the region.

On this occasion, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan also sent an invitation to Mr. Cho Han-Deog and the delegates from the Office of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to have a working visit at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture in the near future.