On December 1st, 2022, the Plaque Unveiling Ceremony of Guangxi Vocational and Technical College (GVTC) and Northern Mountainous Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute (NOMAFSI) of Vietnam was held in the lecture hall of Bowen Building of GVTC. Ms. Yunyan CHENG, Vice President of GVTC, and Dr. Luu Ngoc Quyen, General Director of NOMAFSI attended the Plaque Unveiling Ceremony. In addition, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Binh, Vice Director of NOMAFSI; Mr. Nguyen Conghua, Deputy General Director and Director of Tea Research and Development Center (abbreviated to R&D Center) of NOMAFSI; and other heads of relevant departments of NOMAFSI attended the ceremony. As well as Mr. CHEN Enhai, the Dean of the School of Agricultural Engineering of GVTC; Mr. GAO Chuanyou, Deputy Dean of the School of Agricultural Engineering of GVTC; and tea Double High-levels Plan professional teachers attended the ceremony.
Ms. Yunyan CHENG, Vice President of GVTC said in her remark that the establishment of the Silk Road Tea Institute in Vietnam is very significant. In the long history of Sino-Vietnamese friendly relation, tea is an important bridge and messenger of mutual communication and friendship. After the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2017, the first country of General Secretary Xi Jinping's (abbreviated to President Xi) foreign affairs visit was Vietnam. The President Xi and the President Nguyen had a tea meeting at a traditional Vietnamese house on stilts, where is the President Ho Chi Minh's former residence, President Xi and President Nguyen memorized the older generations of leaders of Vietnam and China there. After the 20th National Congress of CPC this year, President Nguyen was the first foreign leader to receive the highest reception from President Xi at Beijing, China. After the formal bilateral talk between President Xi and President Nguyen, they also had a cordial and relaxed exchange through a tea talk which contributed to numerous bilateral cooperation. President Nguyen hopes that the two sides can carry out more cooperation in the fields of tea cultivation, technological upgrading of the tea industry, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges of tea in the future, further promoting the development of "tea culture" and "tea skills", and making “Silk Road Tea Institute” a bridge of friendship for cultural exchanges and cooperation between the Vietnam and China.
Dr. Luu Ngoc Quyen, General Director of NOMAFSI, introduced in his speech that NOMAFSI was established in 1918 as a research institution of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences, where regarded as a special public science and technology institution under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam. Its main task is to carry out scientific research and technology transfer in agriculture and forestry. NOMAFSI has four R&D centers and five agriculture-related departments. The Tea R&D Center is set up to carry out tea-related scientific tea researches, collections and preservation in fields of tea biological genes, production of tea varieties, improvement of existing varieties and development of new varieties. Dr. Luu hopes that, through the joint establishment of the Silk Road Tea Institute, NOMAFSI can carry out more related cooperation projects and promote consistent development of tea with Chinese tea-related colleges and universities from each other's rich experience in tea research.
After the speeches of both parties, Ms. Yunyan CHENG, Vice President of GVTC, and Dr. Luu Ngoc Quyen, General Director of NOMAFSI, jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding of GVTC and NOMAFSI. Two sides held the Plaque Unveiling Ceremony together, which indicated that the international exchanges and cooperation between the two sides in the field of tea are promoted in depth.
After the Plaque Unveiling Ceremony, GVTC and NOMAFSI also held an online seminar to discuss the details of cooperation. Mr. CHEN Enhai, the Dean of the School of Agricultural Engineering of GVTC, and Dr. Luu Ngoc Quyen, the General Director and Director of the Tea R&D Center of NOMAFSI, introduced the research achievements in tea planting and breeding respectively. The two sides hope to carry out offline visits, academic exchanges, specific training, and project research under the framework of the construction of Silk Road Tea Institute. Moreover, both sides expected to carry out cooperation in tea seed cultivation, tea soil research, tea processing technology upgrading, tea cultural exchanges, to seek new opportunities for promoting the opening-up, mutual-learning and regional-integrating education.