Foreign investment in agriculture sought

HCM CITY (VNS)— The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is working on several measures to attract foreign investment in the agricultural sector.

They include a plan to attract and use foreign investment in agriculture and rural development in the period through 2020, which is likely to be submitted to the Government in the third quarter of next year for approval.

It is working with cities and provinces to update a list of agricultural projects requiring foreign investment in 2011-15.

It is trying to complete a legal framework and simplify administrative procedures to smoothen things for foreign investors in agro-forestry and fisheries.

Foreign investment in agriculture remains modest since production depends very heavily on natural conditions.

The country has attracted US$3.3 billion in more than 500 successful agro-forestry and fisheries projects, accounting for just 2 per cent of the overall FDI figure.

Investors from Asian countries like South Korea, Japan, mainland China, and Thailand accounted for 55 per cent of the investment in agriculture.

Luong The Phiet, head of the ministry's International Cooperation Department, said many foreign investors realise Viet Nam's advantages in agricultural export, so if the ministry takes the proposed measures simultaneously, it will attract many of them.

The ministry will focus on FDI projects using high technology, in the production chain of high-value products, and to develop fisheries infrastructure.

Besides seeking foreign investment in agriculture, the ministry was also trying to diversify investment forms, including the private-public partnership model, he said.

The ministry was set to review the experience of the private-public partnership existing between itself and its 15 international partners, he said.

It would use the findings to create a private-public partnership model for the agricultural sector, he added. — VNS