Vietnam and Egypt on May 10 signed a fishing and aquaculture cooperation agreement to facilitate their relevant agencies’ partnership in the field.

The agreement was inked in Ho Chi Minh City by Luong Le Phuong, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Prof. Dr. Mohamed Fathy Osman, President of the General Authority for Fish Resources Development.

Under the agreement, Vietnam will provide short-term training courses on aquaculture in the open sea and cage fish breeding for Egyptian experts and technicians.

The two countries will exchange visits by fishery and aquaculture officials, experts, and technicians as well as aquatic product quality controllers.

They pledged to encourage their fishing and aquaculture research and training facilities to team up in developing incubation and breeding technologies for aquatic varieties, including fish and shrimp.

The two countries will encourage relevant agencies to exchange the outcomes of fishing and aquaculture studies and examinations of aquatic product quality, as well as publications to promote fish farming.

Besides, they agreed to facilitate private cooperation, investment and partnership in the breeding of seawater and freshwater aquatic creatures, intensive fish farming, and other fields.

The two countries agreed to convene their third meeting in Cairo, Egypt, in the second half of 2011.

While in Vietnam from May 4 to 10, the Egyptian delegation held working sessions with a number of Vietnamese fish farming establishments.

They met with counterparts from relevant public agencies, research institutes and businesses in Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces of Tien Giang and Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

On February 16, 2004, the Vietnamese Ministry of Fisheries and the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation signed a memorandum of understanding on fish resources development.

The two sides held their first meeting in Hanoi on December 9, 2004./.