Officials from the northern province of Dien Bien and the Laos province of Phongsaly held a an opening ceremony of the Hat Tham agro-forestry technical centre in Hat Tham on August 28.

The 7.25-hectare centre was jointly built by the Dien Bien provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Phongsaly provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry, for over 26 billion VND (1.25 million USD), about 3.5 billion VND of which was funded by Dien Bien province.

The Dien Bien agriculture and rural development sector has so far provided human resources and construction materials worth over 1.46 billion VND (74.8 million USD), nearly 50,000 breeding fish and aquaculture equipment for the centre.

On the occasion, the Dien Bien authorities granted equipment and seedlings worth over 1.6 billion VND (77,000 USD) to the centre.

In the past, the sector assisted Phongsaly province in aquaculture techniques, human resources, organisation and management, building a veterinary hospital and capital for animal husbandry worth over 600 million VND (28,800 USD).-VNA