Agro-industry an impetus for agricultural production

Tuesday, 09/12/2014 - 05:21 PM (GMT+7)
Promoting agro-industry is not only urgently needed to add value to products and improve farmers’ incomes, but is also an important impetus for the development of agricultural production.

Illustration photo (Photo: Thai Thien)

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat made the statement at a plenary meeting of the International Support Group (ISG) in Hanoi on December 9, which aimed to inform donors, international organisations and enterprises of the Vietnamese government’s development orientations and investment incentives for agro-industry.

Fostering agro-industry also means the creation of a favourable environment to attract investments from enterprises, especially private ones, into the agricultural sector, Phat said, adding that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has also been urgently reviewing mechanisms and policies for a better investment and business environment.

He said that the MARD encourages enterprises to invest more deeply in the sectors with high added values such as processing and commerce in the farming product value chain, and apply scientific and technological advances to quickly shift the product structure into deep processing, aiming to improve products’ competitiveness.

At the meeting, deputies recommended improving the quality of human resources meeting the demand for processing and preserving products; adjusting policies on tax and credits; enhancing management over products’ quality with clear and stable legal corridors; and renovating mechanisms and policies towards creating convenience, transparency and equality among economic sectors.

According to the Department of Processing and Trading Agricultural Forestry and Aquatic Products, agro-industry takes up a considerable proportion of Vietnam’s processing industries – about 20% of GDP. Alongside the agricultural sector’s achievements, Vietnamese farming products’ quality, added values and competitiveness remain low due to poor preserving and processing facilities and limited agro-industry scales.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)