The project is funded with the official development assistance (ODA) of the Government of Japan through the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) Programme which is co-financed by JICA and the 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 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 researchers' groups, said that the project aims at establishing an industrial base to increase the utilisation of natural rubber as a sustainable use of biological resources.
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 ministries, local authorities 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 Shimizu Akira, Chief Representative of JICA Vietnam Office.
On 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.
“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,” he said.
