Establish two DNA testing facilities to identify the remains of fallen soldiers.

Following proposals from relevant ministries and agencies, today (July 25), Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung agreed to invest in the construction of DNA testing facilities to identify the remains of fallen soldiers whose information is incomplete.

Accordingly, the plan includes the complete investment in two DNA testing centers: one for the Ministry of Public Security with an estimated total investment of 285 billion VND and one for the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology with an estimated total investment of 229 billion VND.

The Prime Minister also instructed the Minister of Public Security and the President of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology to direct the preparation and approval of the investment project to upgrade DNA testing for identifying the remains of martyrs with incomplete information within the two years of 2014-2015, in accordance with regulations, to meet the requirements of the State-level Project on identifying the remains of martyrs with incomplete information (Project 150) issued under Decision No. 150 dated January 24, 2013, of the Prime Minister.

Project 150 requires investment in upgrading three units under the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, ensuring the achievement of 4,000 samples per facility per year, in order to reach the goal of identifying 80,000 remains of martyrs with incomplete information using genetic testing by 2020.

However, during implementation, this task encountered many difficulties related to the quality of DNA samples, the volume of DNA data, as well as infrastructure, equipment, and personnel, resulting in very slow progress in the testing process.

Throughout 2013, the three newly established facilities successfully identified 285 out of 292 biological samples of fallen soldiers' remains. Therefore, without investment in these identification facilities, the goal of identifying 10,000 fallen soldiers' remains by 2015 and 70,000 by 2020, as outlined in Project 150, will not be achieved.

According to GD&TĐ