Vietnam Tackles GM Biosafety Regulations

Any delay in implementing the regulation for risk assessment and field trials for genetically modified (GM) crops in Vietnam will affect the country’s opportunity to benefit from the gains that can be derived from biotechnology. This was stressed by Dr. Le Huy Ham, director of the Agricultural Genetics Institute in Vietnam, during the workshop “Implementing biosafety regulations to release and commercialize GM crops in Vietnam”, held this week in Hanoi, Vietnam.

 Le Huy Ham warned that GM crops, such as corn, soybean and cotton, are already introduced illegally into Vietnam, which may damage biodiversity and may result in production problems for farmers since technical supervision is absent. The adoption of biosafety legislation is therefore an urgent concern. Vietnam intends to conduct field trials of selected GM crops between 2006 and 2010, and expects to commercialize and grow GM crops on over 30% of the land under cultivation in the near future.

Over 50 participants from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Environment, and Ministry of Health, as well as academics and scientists, attended the workshop. The event aimed to provide a detailed understanding of issues in regulation, food safety, biosafety, IP, and public awareness. The workshop was sponsored by Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture Rural Development and by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).

 For more information contact Dr. Randy Hautea at r.hautea@isaaa.org.