On behalf of Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Deputy Minister Nguyễn Quân expressed his pleasure to meet with Dr. Karen Hulebak, who visited Vietnam and worked with MOST, as well as his thanks for Codex International Committee’s cooperation over the past many years, which has supported Vietnam Codex Committee and other relevant agencies. The Deputy Minister hoped that the visit paid by Dr. Karen Hulebak would achieve good results.
Dr. Karen Hulebak expressed his sincere thanks for the Deputy Minister for his time and hoped that with his position as the Chairman of International Codex Committee, she would spend more time and efforts with desires to create good development relationships among countries with newly-emerging countries as Vietnam and developing countries to actively and efficiently participate in the International Codex organization.
Deputy Minister Nguyễn Quân hoped that Dr. Karen Hulebak’s experience and supports from International Code Organization would support Vietnam to speed up the harmonization of Vietnamese standards with international ones, as well as provide technical supports for the General Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality in the development of these standards. The International Codex Organization can send experts to work in Vietnam or support Vietnam to train experts in countries which have good practices of standards on food.
As we know, in order to achieve objectives of the International Codex Committee, science has played an important role. Over the past years, MOST has developed Vietnamese standards relating to food safety and hygiene and issued standards for enterprises, social organizations to apply in their production. MOST has also sent many experts to attend international conferences and workshops in order to learn experience and strengthen international cooperation in this field.
Especially, after becoming a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Vietnam has moved up one step in the harmonization of Vietnamese and international standards. So far, Vietnam has issued nearly 100 standards which are equivalent to Codex standards on food. Nearly 20% Vietnamese standards are harmonized with international ones; only in the food field about 12% Vietnamese standards are equivalent to Codex standards. In 10 coming years, Vietnam will strive for achieving the objective of harmonizing Vietnamese standards with international ones up to 80%, only in the food field it will account for about 65 - 70%.
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The International Codex Committee was established in 1960 with the objective of ensuring people’s health and equity in commerce with food products. At the establishment of the International Codex Committee, there were 30 member countries, mainly developing countries. So far, the number has significantly increased, up to 184 countries. |