I. History

On 16 December  2004, according to the document No. 6880/VPCP-QHQT signed by Minister, Head of the Government Office,

Doan Manh Giao on the approval by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan on the participation in the Trans-Eurasia Information Network, Phase 2 (TEIN2) project, the Ministry of Science and Technology was assigned as the focal point, coordinating with other relevant Ministries to participate in the TEIN2 project.

On 07 January 2005, the Minister of Science and Technology, Hoang Van Phong, sent a commitment letter to EC and DANTE on the participation of Vietnam in the TEIN2 project, and agreed to contribute finance to the phase 2 from 2005-2007.

On 23 September 2005, the Vice Minister of Science & Technology, Tran Quoc Thang, signed the letter on commitment to participate in the pilot operation phase, including financial commitment to pay the international network connection fee for the first year, with the bandwidth of up to 155Mbps.

On 03 December 2005, in Ha Noi, the Ministry of Science & Technology held the 1^st VinaREN Conference on the need to connect internationally with TEIN2 and on the establishment of VinaREN.

On 19 April 2006, the Ministry of Science & Technology issued the Decision No. 766/QD-BKHCN on assigning the National Center for Scientific and Technological Information (NACESTI) as the coordinator of the project.

On June 2006, the Ministry of Science & Technology successfully organized the TEIN2 Technical Conference in Ha Long. In this Conference, TEIN2 was officially launched in Vietnam. A number of organizations was able to connect to TEIN2.

On 12 December 2006, the Government Office sent the document No. 7289/VPCP-QHQT on the approval by the Deputy Prime Minister, Pham Gia Khien, on the direction for Vietnam to participate in the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) and development of the Vietnam Research and Education Network to connect among leading research institutes, universities in Vietnam and link to international community via TEIN2. The Ministry of Science & Technology was in charge of coordinating with relevant Ministries to prepare a detailed proposal on the Vietnam Research and Education Network.