Their inauguration is a milestone in the strengthening of research and innovation capacities among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region and promotion of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in Vietnam.
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and the Minister of Science of Technology of Vietnam, H.E. Chu Ngoc Anh signed the agreement of Category 2 Centres under the auspices of UNESCO on August 24.
Hosted by the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, the Centres will benefit from the engagement of national and regional research communities in physics and mathematics. They will provide key platforms for both regional and international capacity building in the basic sciences as well as to support research in ASEAN countries and in less developed countries and develop scientific events promoting knowledge sharing.
Now part of a broad and influential network, the Centres will closely collaborate with the International Basics Sciences Programme of UNESCO, the Abdus Salam International Centre of Theoretical Physics, the World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries and UNESCO's networks of Category 2 Centres and Chairs in the basic sciences.
The Director-General commended the Government of Vietnam for their dedication to advance science, technology and innovation in Vietnam and the region through the establishment of the two Centres. Further, she expressed her confidence that they will provide an important platform for the the development of young women and men in science.
The signing ceremony establishing the Centres took place at the Ministry of Science and Technology where H.E. Mr Chu Ngoc Anh and Ms Bokova used the opportunity to also discuss further joint collaboration in this area, noting the importance of science to Vietnam's continued socio-economic development and its important role in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Following the signing ceremony, the UNESCO Director-General visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex, established in 2014. The outstanding cultural value, exceptional natural beauty and significant geomorphic and physiographic features of the Complex reveal archaeological traces of human activity dating back almost 30,000 years.
