The Vietnam Research and Education Network (VinaREN) has emerged as an information superhighway 8 years after its inception in 2004, allowing the local research – training community to connect with over 50 million colleagues all over the world.

By now, more than 100 agencies in all 63 provinces and cities in the country including research institutes, universities, hospitals, and departments of science and technology have linked up with VinaREN.

According to the Director of National Agency for Science and Technology Information under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ta Ba Hung, the international VinaREN line upgraded from 155 Mbps to 622 Mbps helps boost the stability for internal and global connection.

Besides sharing scientific information with their international counterparts, Vietnamese scientists and researchers are also now able to access many databases worldwide, Hung added.

In 2012, VinaREN assisted a number of major domestic hospitals in organising video conferences to share treatment experiences and new techniques with foreign counterparts. It also served the transmission of hydro-meteorological data from abroad to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.-VNA