15-17 December 2007: Dalat Flower Festival & Plant Breeders' Rights Workshop

15 December, the Dalat flower festival 2007 started it opening ceremony. The event is held every two years in Dalat, Lam Dong province, an ideal region in Vietnam for flowers and vegetables. Various activities were taken place from 15 to 21 Dec. 2007. Participating the opening ceremony, there were the Dutch Ambassador, Agricultural Counsellor, Commercial and Trade Counsellor and other Dutch experts.

Joining the flower caravan parade of the festival, a flower cart decorated with Dutch flowers and windmill appears as an image of the Netherlands in Vietnam. The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and the Netherlands Embassy in Vietnam funded for the flower cart.

On the occasion of the flower festival, the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Netherlands in cooperation with Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development organized a workshop on Plant Breeders’ Rights on 16 Dec. 2007 in Dalat under the co-chairing by Vice Minister Bui Ba Bong and Dutch Ambassador Andre Haspels. Participants to the workshop were provincial departments of agriculture and rural development, research institutes, Vietnamese and Dutch companies working in the field.

The workshop provided the participants with understanding on the plant breeders’ rights protection system in Vietnam and the Netherlands. At the end, a “memorandum of understanding on Vietnam and the Netherlands cooperation in plant breeders’ right protection” was signed.

After the workshop, in the afternoon, field visits were held to Dalat Hasfarm, Center of Agricultural Technology of Lam Dong and Fresh Studio.