The panorama of the Signing ceremony
Attending the Signing ceremony, the Vietnamese party were Minister of Science and Technology Nguyễn Quân; Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Trần Việt Thanh and leaders of related agencies and the Argentine party were Mr. Lino Salvador Baranao – Minister of Science, Technology and Production Renovation; Ms. Agueda Menvielle – Director of the Department of International Relations of the Ministry, Mr. Alberto Jaime Kaminker – Argentine Ambassador in Hanoi and other representatives.
Mr. Lino Salvador Baranao said that despite of geographic distance and cultural differences, Vietnam and Argentina have also had many similarities which can develop cooperative relations. The two parties have also had advantages in agriculture and food production so that they can support each other to develop in this field.
In addition to the advantage of agricultural and food production, Argentine has also had advantages in space technology and atomic energy. These will be fields which Argentine has cooperation abilities with Vietnam.
Delivering a speech in the Signing ceremony, Minister Nguyễn Quân emphasized that over the past time, although S&T Cooperation between Vietnam and Argentina has achieved certain results, they were not equal to potentials of the two nations. The signed MoU has been one important document which marks cooperative relations in S&T field between the two nations to be a new height. Through the MoU the two parties would identify potential and strong fields to be cooperated for the coming time. The Minister hoped that after the Signing ceremony, the two parties would organize scientific workshops to together discuss and find out the most efficient cooperation directions.
Minister Nguyễn Quân and Mr. Lino Salvador Baranao in the Signing ceremony
It is known that in S&T field, Governments of Vietnam and Argentina have signed Framework Agreement on S&T Cooperation (1997) and Cooperation Agreement on using atomic energy for peaceful purposes (2004). Some cooperation activities in atomic energy have been carried out, mainly exchanging information and sending experts for missions. In 2005, Argentina granted Vietnam with some scholarships in fields of atomic energy, biology technology and S&T management.
Especially, the two parties have organized the 2nd session of Vietnam – Argentine Inter-governmental Committee in May 2009 and agreed to strengthen cooperative relations in the S&T field, namely research on capacities of developing a joint plan of action for Research and Development projects on fields such as biology technology, pharmacy, agriculture, food, nano technology, information technology, communication and recycled energy.