Japan will join hands with Vietnam to build the International Biomedical Research Centre for the Mekong region to help regional nations better respond to emerging and dangerous diseases.

The Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hirofumi Nakasone, announced this during his visit to the Hanoi-based National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) to inquire into its capacity to cope with influenza A/H1N1.

Nakasone, who has been in Vietnam to attend the 9th Asia-Europe Foreign Ministers’ Meeting scheduled for May 25 and 26 in Hanoi, spoke highly of the results of medical cooperation between the two countries, under which a number of Japanese experts are working at the NIHE.

Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu thanked the Japanese Government for its valuable assistance to Vietnam’s health sector, particularly its help to build a level-3 bio-safety lab at the institute.

Trieu appreciated the Japanese-funded Project for Improvement of Bio-safety and the National Influenza Centre (NIC), saying that these projects have helped Vietnam be more proactive in preventing and detecting diseases.

The minister told his guest that Vietnam has yet to discover any case of A/H1N1 infection./.