Sharing information on the illegal trade of rhino horn will be the key tool in fighting poaching, a Vietnamese delegation says.

"We should share more information and intelligence to investigate on this matter... this will be a key point to solve the problem," Tuan Cong Ha, from the Vietnamese environment affairs department, told reporters in Johannesburg.

"We agree that we can understand each better."

The delegation met its South African counterparts this week to discuss wildlife protection and law enforcement.

A memorandum of understanding would soon be finalised and signed, said South Africa's deputy director-general of biodiversity and conservation Fundisile Mketeni.

The agreement included closer co-operation in law enforcement, monitoring systems and the gathering and sharing of information.

The countries agreed to work together on the issuing of hunting permits.

Mketeni said the department was tightening up its verification process when it came to permit-issuing.

It planned to record more information about hunters and make sure the trophy was still in the hunter's possession after a year.

The department intended involving other consumer states, including China and Thailand, in similar efforts to combine planning, research and monitoring, Mketeni said.

A total of 309 rhino have been poached this year, according to the department of environmental affairs. In 2009, 333 rhino were poached.

Mketeni said 180 people had been arrested since the start of the year in connection with poaching.