Hanoi (VNA) – The agricultural sector will aim for aGDP growth rate of between 3 – 3.1 percent and total export value ofagro-forestry-fisheries at 34 – 35 billion USD in 2018.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentNguyen Xuan Cuong recently ordered his ministry’s subordinate agencies andlocalities to step up making development plans for the sector and each field in2018 towards achieving the overall goals.
Other targets for 2018 include an increase of 3.3– 3.5 percent in production value of the whole agricultural sector, a forestcoverage of 41.6 percent, and 37 percent of all communes recognised asnew-style rural areas.
Regarding crop cultivation, the minister toldthe agencies and localities to seek ways to reach a production value growthrate of 2.5 – 3 percent and export revenue of at least 16 billion USD.
[Hi-tech agriculture needs better credit policies]
Meanwhile, animal husbandry and fisheries shouldtry to expand the production values by 4 – 5 percent and 6 percent,respectively, next year. The overseas shipments of aquatic products areexpected to earn some 7.5 billion USD.
The sector plans to increase the forestryproduction value by 5.5 – 6 percent and bring home 7.5 – 7.7 billion USD fromthe export of forestry products.
In the first half of 2017, Vietnam earned 17.1billion USD from shipping agro-forestry-fishery products abroad, up 13.1percent year on year. The figure was 32.1 billion USD in 2016, according to theministry.-VNA