Vietnam always identifies science and technology as a top national policy and an important driving force for the country's rapid and sustainable development.

Ambassador Nguyen Thi Van Anh, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to UNESCO has told UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences Lidia Arthur Brito.

At their meeting on March 8, the ambassador expressed her wish to strengthen Vietnam's cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in this field in the coming time in the spirit of implementing the Memorandum of Understanding on Vietnam - UNESCO Cooperation for the 2021-2025 period.

She thanked UNESCO for supporting Vietnam in making dossiers of, preserving, and promoting the value of Global Geoparks and World Biosphere Reserves to serve sustainable socio-economic development of localities; and asked the organization to continue with its assistance in building the dossier for the Lang Son Geopark to seek recognition as a Global Geopark.

The diplomat took the occasion to invite the Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences to visit Vietnam and attend the 8th Asia Pacific Geoparks Network Symposium to be hosted by the northern mountainous province of Cao Bang in September.

Lidia Arthur Brito thanked Vietnam for always supporting and contributing to UNESCO's efforts to implement its functions and tasks in the field of natural sciences.

She affirmed her willingness to intensify collaboration with Vietnam in the coming time, especially in the fields of open science, oceanography, water resources management, application of artificial intelligence (AI) in science, ethics in AI, and preservation and promotion of the value of World Biosphere Reserves and Global Geoparks towards sustainable development.