The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has pledged JPY350 million ($4.5 million) as non-refundable government aid to help Vietnam improve food safety. The Japanese agency, the Vietnam Sanitary and Phytosanitary Notification Authority and Enquiry Point (Vietnam SPS Office) and the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s International Cooperation Department signed on Nov 8 a project on strengthening inspection system for safe agro-fishery in Vietnam. Under the project lasting from 2011 to 2014, the Japanese side will support Vietnam in inspection technology transfer, improvement of the inspection system and human resource training, both in Vietnam and in Japan. The beneficiaries will be Vietnam SPS Office, the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD), the Plant Protection Department and the Animal Health Department. Along with rampant food poisoning in Vietnam, unsafe farm products will hurt the country’s exports as foreign countries have rejected those products failed to meet safety requirements. Vietnam needs a comprehensive and scientific system to monitor the safety of agro-forestry and fishery products, said Taigo Endo from JICA SPS, who was in charge of the project’s feasibility study. Many Vietnamese laboratories are not equipped with high-tech machines for food product safety analysis, Endo noted. (Kinh te Viet Nam & The gioi – Vietnam & World Economy Nov 9 p3)
