The National Institute of Nutrition and Nestlé Việt Nam signed a strategic co-operation agreement. — Photo courtesy of Nestlé Việt Nam

HÀ NỘI — The National Institute of Nutrition and Nestlé Việt Nam on Wednesday signed a strategic co-operation agreement on enhancing communication to raise awareness about the role of proper nutrition and promoting an active lifestyle for the period 2023-25.

The agreement aims to strengthen communication and nutrition education for children and school-aged students.

Trần Thanh Dương, Director of the National Institute of Nutrition, said school-aged children have rapid physical and psychological development, but are also nutritionally vulnerable. Nutritional disorders caused by unbalanced and unreasonable diets affect children's stature, intelligence and the risk of non-communicable diseases as adults.

"Many studies around the world have recommended that in order to improve stature, longevity and reduce the risk of disease in adulthood, it is necessary to have a reasonable and scientific diet from school age," Dương added.

Binu Jacob, General Director of Nestlé Việt Nam, said: “We are committed in Việt Nam to enhancing the quality of life for Vietnamese people and contributing to the implementation of the National Nutrition Strategy through close collaborative relationships between us and ministries. It's also great to see that the results of our collaborative effort last year from our clinical study on the effectiveness of using Nestlé Milo which has helped improve physical attributes of children in northern Ninh Bình Province. For us, this strengthened partnership between Nestlé Việt Nam and the institute is a cornerstone of Nestle's long journey from realising our commitments, and joining hands with partners like them to nurture and develop a more active and more enduring young generation.”

Within the framework of this long-term partnership, the two sides will enhance communication on proper nutrition and promoting physical activities. They will also deepen their co-operation on clinical research to provide scientific evidence as the foundation for developing intervention studies and also communication activities related to school nutrition. These will contribute to the National Nutrition Strategy in 2021-30 period with a vision to 2045. — VNS