JICA signed a grant agreement with Vietnam on October 17 to provide over 1.2 billion JPY for a project to enhance laboratory capacity of the Reference Testing and Agrifood Quality Consultancy (RETAQ) Centre, helping Vietnam better ensure safety of agricultural and fishery products as food.

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RETAQ is under the management of the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Under this project, RETAQ will be provided with equipment needed to build an inspection system for ensuring the safety of agrifood along with facilities for effectively using that equipment with the aim of expanding the food inspection system and improving the testing capacity.

JICA will also provide RETAQ with consultation on food safety policies, and assist the centre in improving the capacity of the food safety monitoring system for agricultural and fishery products.

It is expected that this project will ensure agrifood safety in Vietnam and advance implementation of WTO’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Agreement.