Introduction of Chrysanthemum breeding to Vietnam Note: The project is withdrawn by the project partners before the implementation phase has been started.Vietnam is an important flower producing country in South-East Asian. The chrysanthemum is a popular flower due to cultural and religious ceremonies. The project will introduce flower breeding in Vietnam. It will select and develop new varieties that perform best under the local conditions and are resistant to local pests and diseases. The new varieties will be "designed" for the regional market. The partners are active in chrysanthemum breeding (applicant) and growing (local partner). The project fits in both companies strategies. The partners will establish a joint venture that will be located in Dalat where flower growing is wide spread. The project will boost the Vietnam chrysanthemum sector. It gets access to new high quality varieties that the local partner, outgrowers in Vietnam will grow for the Japanese, Vietnam and other markets in the region. Flower breeding is a risky business and a certain scale is needed to increase the change to success. For the breeding a special greenhouse will be needed including a small tissue lab. The joint venture will hire around one hundred employees, most of them women. Salaries will be in line with living wage or above. The project will operate under GlobalGAP certificate what means good working conditions. The environmental impact will be strictly monitored by the Vietnam government.Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)The joint venture will set up a CSR policy. This is based on the principles of providing good livelihood of the employees, serving as a reliable partner for its suppliers, clients and investors, provide interesting and challenging work in safe and responsible setting and to remunerate its management and middle level employees at competitive rates and its basic level employees at living wages, non-discrimination, freedom of labour, employees are free of joining any trade unions and corruption will not be tolerated.The both partners core business is setting up environmentally friendly businesses.Impact•	Employment and working conditionsFor the basic-level workers the joint venture will pay living wages. The possibilities for employee participation will be explored. The joint venture is considering a shareholders position for four persons of the management later on in the project. Fringe benefits include meals, health insurance, employee participation, training on the job career opportunities, personal hygiene, restrooms, worship and leisure.The training programme offered will be highly interested for the workers to improve their skills and experience, making them attractive for employment elsewhere. Knowledge and training are a key for the success of the project according to the partners.•	Innovation / Transfer of knowledgeAlthough charcoal is already locally produced, this project adjust the following:- The quality level of the peat substrates is a big improvement comparing to the currently available peat production.- There are existing charcoal producers in Vietnam. In this project the partners will introduce technologies that are environmentally friendly and much more efficient. This will lead to zero emission charcoal and reduce the environmental impact of producing charcoal.- In this project the activated charcoal will be produced from the zero emission charcoal and this will be produced in the same process as the production of the charcoal, which safes a lot of energy use. The produced active charcoal in this project will be used for air filtration systems in the Netherlands and Belgium. This is a new market for this product produced in Vietnam.The business opportunity of the PSI project is that with the knowledge and experience in the sector of environmental engineering and coco-peat substrates production, the partners can set up an integrated processing operation. The charcoal is part of this integrated process. The demand of charcoal is very big in Vietnam and with this project the partners can cover a small market share.•	Chain effectsImpact on local suppliersThe raw materials are the coconut waste. This will be about 10,000,000 coconut husks by the end of the project. The joint venture will give farmers a new market for their waste products. There will be 100 contracts with farmers.Impact on local customers or consumersThe local consumers will get excess to locally produced charcoal of a high quality. Furthermore, the horticulture will get access to locally produced growing substrates.•	Impact on the sectorThe project will invite other companies to demonstrate the used technologies. The project will be open to collaborate with NGOs and government representative organisations and universities.The project will introduce ISO 9001.•	EnvironmentThe technologies are highly favourable with regard to the energy content of the charcoal, but also the production processes, with zero emission of harmful substances to the environment.•	Position of womenThe project will endeavour ample job career opportunities for women.•	Impact on food safetyIndirectly, the project contributes to food security by supplying growing media for the horticulture. To establish a chrysanthemum breeding facility to develop marketable new chrysanthemum varieties designed for the local circumstances and South-East Asia markets. The project will at least produce three new varieties and 3.3 million stems in the pre-comme