At the meeting, Minister Chu Ngoc Anh and Ambassador Ivo Sieber expressed their pleasure to see the cooperation between the two countries developing well, especially cooperation in the field of intellectual property, measurement and quality. The two sides have been interested in promoting the cooperation for more than 20 years, helping Vietnam improve its legal system and management capacity, meeting the requirements of international integration. Especially the moves to warm up the scientific and technological cooperation between the two countries through the recent visits and work of the Swiss Minister of Economy to Vietnam (July 2019) and the Ministry Chief Chu Ngoc Anh arrives in Switzerland (October 2019). The two sides recognize the potential and willingness to cooperate between academic and business areas of the two countries, and expect the two sides to continue exchanging, identifying priority areas and concretizing them into specific cooperation initiatives.

Minister Chu Ngoc Anh hoped that the Ambassador in his working term would be interested in promoting the elevation of the signed cooperation agreement signed in 2019 into an agreement between the two governments on scientific and technological cooperation and exchange innovation in 2021; promote joint research projects between the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Swiss State Commission on Education, Research and Innovation - SERI in priority areas, such as health, high-tech agriculture, climate change, industrial technology 4.0; facilitating cooperation between Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park in particular, Vietnam's high-tech parks in general and Zurich Innovation Park; strengthening cooperation between the Federal Institute of Technology - ETH Zurich with Southeast Asian countries taking Vietnam as the center; help Vietnam train and build the capacity of scientific and management staffs. The Minister also suggested that the Swiss side should soon open the Office of Science and Technology in Vietnam or appoint a Specialist to promote scientific and technological cooperation with Vietnam.

Speaking at the meeting, Ambassador Ivo Sieber expressed his pleasure to assume the role of Ambassador in Vietnam and thanked the sincere welcome of Minister Chu Ngoc Anh. The Ambassador expressed his special impression at the success of Vietnam in the prevention of Covid-19 epidemic and said that he and his Embassy staff always feel safe and grateful for the efforts to repel the epidemic disease of the Government of Vietnam. The Ambassador congratulated Vietnam for ratifying the EVFTA Agreement with the EU and said that promoting the negotiation and signing of a free trade agreement between Vietnam and the European Free Trade Area - EFTA will open up many opportunities. Bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and Switzerland in economics, trade and investment as well as science, technology and innovation.

The Ambassador highly agreed with the priorities of cooperation between the two countries in the coming time and said that the 2019 Cooperation Protocol is a premise to open up new cooperation opportunities in science, technology and innovation within the framework of Switzerland's 2021-2024 Medium-term Development Cooperation Program in Vietnam. The Ambassador highly appreciated the proposal of Minister Chu Ngoc Anh on creating mechanisms to promote cooperation and connection among research institutes, universities, businesses and innovative start-up ecosystems of the two countries; At the same time, the two sides are requested to appoint a contact for further exchange and discussion on cooperation plans in the coming years. The Ambassador expressed his wish that Minister Chu Ngoc Anh would spend time in Switzerland again to continue exploiting extremely potential cooperation opportunities and working directly with the academic, business and Both of Switzerland's private sector to further promote bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the field of science, technology and innovation.