Nguyen Van Bo - ACIAR

Nguyen Van Bo Former President of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences    “As a manager and consultant, I always want to seek every opportunity to enhance Vietnam's agricultural scientific position among the international community by carrying out research projects. The success of these projects brings joy not only to those who are directly involved but also to all the people."

With nearly 30 years of experience in cooperative activities between Vietnam and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR),, Dr. Nguyen Van Bo’s first thought when discussing Vietnam - Australia cooperation is "shared trust". “While there are institutional and political differences, the two sides have successfully worked together in economics, culture, and politics. That has been the result of efforts from both sides, the closest of friends. Only trust can create a solid foundation for every cooperation," says Dr. Bo.

Dr Bo has worked with ACIAR since he was a young scientist and has held leadership positions in various units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, such as the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Department of Science - Technology and the Soils and Fertilisers Institute. He has always actively supported ACIAR to ensure that projects are approved as quickly as possible, as this will bring faster and better results for bilateral cooperation.

In 2004, Dr. Bo received an invitation to join ACIAR’s Policy Advisory Council (PAC) and he became the second Vietnamese national, after Professor Vo Tong Xuan, to be on this Council.

Joining PAC has been not only an honour but also provided valuable knowledge for both his expertise and leadership. “I learnt a lot about methodologies and scientific thinking. Australians harmonise the interests of economics, society, environment, gender, women and children. In the past, when I was in a leadership position, I used to tell my research institutes to further prioritise economic efficiency. But I later realised that it’s not sustainable for projects to focus on economic goals alone,” Dr. Bo says.

In 2017, he engaged in discussions with various stakeholders, especially the ACIAR office in Hanoi, to develop the Vietnam-ACIAR ten-year Strategy for Research Collaboration in Agriculture (2017-2027), which serves as the foundation for long-term cooperation between the two sides.

In 2018, Dr. Nguyen Van Bo, along with experts and the Vietnam ACIAR Office, compiled and published the book “25 years ACIAR-Vietnam collaboration in Agricultural Research”; and was honored to have it Launched by Ambassador Craig Chittick on 10 January 2019.

"I often say that we achieve multiple objectives in cooperating with Australia. For ACIAR projects, we should not only look at the project scale or finances but also other purposes, such as improving scientific thinking, approaches, human resource development, and creating a global network of scientists in the same field. Through this cooperation, Vietnamese scientists in fact not only improve their expertise and leadership but also language proficiency," he explains.

When collaborating with Australia, Dr. Bo especially appreciates that results from the research in projects and programmes must lead to policy proposals to scale up beneficial models and technologies.

He also expresses satisfaction that this collaboration helps Vietnam develop and master many new technologies in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, connecting partners with each other, contributing to developing markets for Vietnamese agricultural produce and promoting agricultural exports to Australia.

The Vietnamese government conferred on ACIAR a Friendship Order for the centre’s excellent contributions to the development of science technology and high-quality human resources in Vietnam.

Dr. Bo believes that in the future, both countries can explore collaboration potential in industries and sectors in which Australia has extensive experience, such as water circulation, marine economy, climate change, green growth, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He also added that it is time for Vietnam to contribute funding to joint agricultural research projects with Australia. Then, the responsibilities of each partner are improved and project effectiveness is enhanced.