Mr. Shimizu Akira, Chief Representative of JICA Vietnam Office (right) and Associate Professor Huynh Dang Chinh, Vice-President of HUST signed the Record of Discussion.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Japan Science and Technology (JST) in cooperation with the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) and the Nagaoka University of Technology (NUT) of Japan organized a signing ceremony of Record of Discussions for the “Project for Innovation of Science and Technology on Natural Rubber for Global Carbon Process” in Hanoi on May 19.

The Project is funded by the Official Development Assistance (ODA) of the Government of Japan through the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) Program which is co-financed by JICA and JST. It will be implemented by HUST and NUT for 5 years from 2022 to 2027, and considered as the development of the previous JICA-JST joint project for “Establishment of Carbon-Cycle-System with Natural Rubber”, which was completed in March 2016.

Focus of the Project is the development of advance technologies to establish a large-scale production process for protein-free natural rubber in Vietnam. Besides, new technologies for biodegradation of rubber products and low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and rubber production wastewater system with resource recovery will also be developed.

Professor Yamaguchi Takashi, Team Leader of the Japanese researcher groups, explained: “The Project aims at establishing an industrial base to increase the utilization of natural rubber as a sustainable use of biological resources. With innovation of science and technology, we hope that we will be able to contribute to building a foundation for the development of a natural rubber chemistry and creating sustainable products from natural rubber, which can be plastic substitution and future uses in industry, textiles/footwear, and construction”.

Representatives in the photo session of the signing ceremony.

The Government of Vietnam already announced its strong commitment in achieving net zero emission by 2050 and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has called on stakeholders including line ministries, local governments and businesses to make action plans on GHG reductions across all sectors aligned with the target of carbon neutrality by 2050. “Technological innovation is the key for us to fight against climate crisis and we believe that this Project will set a good example of collaboration between Japanese and Vietnamese research institutes in pursuing breakthrough technologies for development of sustainable products and contribution to GHG emission reduction.” said Mr. Shimizu Akira, Chief Representative of JICA Vietnam Office.

Relating to the technical cooperation projects implemented by HUST and NUT, Associate Professor Huynh Dang Chinh, Vice-President of HUST expressed his gratitude to the Government of Japan for providing such a valuable support to HUST and added “This is one of our important internationally joint research project which HUST has been participating in preparing for implementation and I strongly believe that working with leading Japanese scientists from Nagaoka University of Technology will help improve the capacity of innovation and creativity in scientific and technological research in general and in the field of natural rubber research in particular for Vietnamese researchers, helping Vietnam overcome new challenges such as achieving net zero emission target by 2050”.

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