HCMC – The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has rolled out the “Project for Innovation of Science and Technology on Natural Rubber for Global Carbon Process” in Hanoi, helping Vietnam achieve its net zero emission target.
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 the Record of Discussions for the project today, 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 Program, which is co-financed by JICA and JST.
It will be implemented by HUST and NUT for five years, from 2022 to 2027, and considered the development of the previous JICA-JST joint project for the “Establishment of Carbon-Cycle-System with Natural Rubber”, which was completed in March 2016.
The project is set to focus on developing advanced technologies to establish a large-scale production process for protein-free natural rubber in Vietnam. Besides, new technologies for the biodegradation of rubber products and a 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 sustainable use of biological resources. With the innovation of science and technology, we hope that we will be able to contribute to building a foundation for the development of the natural rubber chemistry field and creating sustainable products from natural rubber, which can be a substitute for plastic.”
The Government of Vietnam has already announced its strong commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. As such, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has called on stakeholders, including ministries, local governments and businesses, to develop 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 the 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 the development of sustainable products and contribution to GHG emission reduction,” said Shimizu Akira, Chief Representative of JICA Vietnam Office.
Aside from expressing gratitude to the Government of Japan for providing such valuable support to HUST, Associate Professor Huynh Dang Chinh, Vice-President of HUST, said, “This is an important internationally joint research project which HUST has been participating in.
“I strongly believe that working with leading Japanese scientists from the Nagaoka University of Technology will offer a big opportunity to Vietnamese researchers to improve the capacity of innovation and creativity in scientific and technological research and natural rubber research, helping Vietnam overcome new challenges such as achieving a net zero emission target by 2050.”
