Vietnam on Wednesday agreed to a declaration in Bangladesh about continuing the Kyoto protocol with 18 other climate- vulnerable countries. The Dhaka Declaration following a ministerial meeting filled the leadership vacuum ahead of the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The conference will be held in Durban, South Africa, between November 28 and December 9. It called on Durban to continue a second term of the [...]

Vietnamese experts are increasingly concerned about genetically-modified (GM) plants that have undergone trials and are about to be cultivated widely. Le Huy Ham, director of the Agricultural Genetics Institute, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is considering approving mass cultivation of seven GM maize varieties. “If it [the approval] is done early, Vietnam will plant GM maize on local farms in 2012,” he said.

Vietnam will invest VND3 trillion (US$142.8 million) into human resources training for nuclear power as of 2020, VnExpress reported Monday. The investment was planned for a project to be conducted between Vietnam ministries of science and technology, and education in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to the newswire.