On the morning of March 11, 2024, the Vietnam Forest Certification Office (VFCO) welcomed the delegation of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation of Myanmar led by Ms. Zin Mar Tun – Deputy Permanent Secretary and Mr. Pe Chit – Deputy General Director of the Forestry Department. Also participating in the delegation were representatives from the Myanmar Forest Certification Committee (MFCC) and the Myanmar Timber Enterprise (MTE). Dr. Vu Tan Phuong – Director of VFCO with Mr. Nguyen Hoang Tiep – Deputy Director and VFCO officials welcomed and worked with the delegation.

At the meeting, Ms. Zin Mar Tun expressed her appreciation for welcoming and working at VFCO – an organise that has a positive relationship with MFCC. She said that recently, Myanmar has had many policies to promote sustainable development of the forestry sector, such as issuing a ban on log exports and reduced timber extraction within the framework of the annual allowable cut (since 2014), stop exporting sawn timber (from 2022) and encourage domestically processed products. The Myanmar Forest Certification Committee (MFCC) has been established with the task of establishing a sustainable forest management certification system according to PEFC and managing the Myanmar Timber Legality Assurance System (MTLAS). She hopes to receive support from VFCO and share experiences in building and developing the Vietnam Forest Certification Scheme (VFCS). On behalf of VFCO, Dr. Vu Tan Phuong presented an overview of the establishment process and experience in building and developing VFCS and outstanding internal achievements, and experience in managing and improving the transparency of the forest certification system and promoting the use of legal wood. The two parties affirmed to continue sharing and cooperating to promote sustainable forest management certification in the two countries, in the region and globally.