Wider investments needed for agriculture to flourish

• Big difficulties discourage agriculture startups
• Agriculture to bring more foreign investment
• Vietnam’s agriculture targets 3.05% growth in 2018

The conference attracted the participation of Deputy Prime Ministers Vuong Dinh Hue and Trinh Dinh Dung, Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City’s Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan and more than 600 delegates, including leaders of ministries, sectors, localities, businesses, and domestic and foreign development partners.

The event is seen as an opportune occasion to evaluate what has been done and what has yet to be done in order to find a solution for encouraging businesses to invest in agriculture.

In his opening address, Deputy PM Trinh Dinh Dung emphasized the due attention given by the Party and State to agricultural and rural development, as shown by the 10th Party Central Committee’s Resolution No. 26 in 2008 which asserted the important role and strategic position of agriculture, rural development, and farmers.

The Government has also issued a number of major agricultural investment policies as stipulated in the Resolution.

Since the beginning of his term, the Government leader has chaired a host of conferences of its kind such as a “Building Vietnam's Agriculture and Industry” conference in 2016, a conference discussing solutions for sustainable development of the rice industry in the Mekong River Delta region in 2017, a conference on the development of Vietnam’s shrimp industry in 2017, a “Market Development for Fruit and Vegetables, a Solutions for the Development of Logistics Systems for Agriculture and Rural Areas” forum in 2017, and the first-ever dialogue  with Vietnamese farmers in 2018.

The issuance of many specific policies has showed the dedicated focus of the Government and Prime Minister and served to actualise Party and State guidelines on enhancing agricultural and rural development.

The delegates highlighted the important role played by businesses in agricultural and rural development, thereby helping to restructure high value goods production and generate employment and incomes, facilitate engagement in the global value chain.

It is estimated that around 49,600 businesses nationwide are invested in agriculture, making up 8% of all companies in the country, and creating more than 4.5 million jobs, accounting for 32.5% of the total workforce of all businesses throughout the nation.

However, these achievements are still below the agricultural sector’s potential and capabilities as a result of unsustainable development, weak competitiveness, slowly renovated production organization, small and scattered production, and its low productivity, quality and added value, which failed to meet the requirements for the production of commodities.

According to some participants, there should be agricultural investment promotion policies. Businesses must be the key force, while farmers must take the initiative with high technological adaptation. It is necessary to establish chains of connection from production to consumption, and improve the infrastructure for agricultural development.

The conference is part of a string of other recently held events such as a national conference on promoting ASEAN Single Window (ASW), National Single Window (NSW) and trade facilitation, a conference on logistics and export promotion and related meetings on the Industrial Revolution 4.0.