(Illustrative image: VNA)Can Tho (VNA) – Officials of the Mekong Deltacity of Can Tho had a meeting with a delegation of the Japan InternationalCooperation Agency (JICA) on December 4 to discuss agricultural cooperationprogrammes and promote Japanese investment in the city.
The policy and agricultural development advisorygroup of JICA presented the results of a survey in Can Tho and proposedsolutions to enhance ties in developing local food value chains.
Yuichi Fukasaka, head of the advisory group,noted some Japanese firms operating in the city said they are facing problemsrelated to land and labour.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment and theMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development have issued many policies topromote the sale of farm produce. However, localities are the ones implementingthese policies. Meanwhile, each locality has different conditions and their ownways to realise the policies, which has caused difficulties to achieve thepolicies’ objectives, he pointed out.
The JICA expert also mentioned the surveyedlocalities’ limited access to finance, suggesting that they should activelyaccess financial sources from the private sector.
For his part, Vice Chairman of the Can Thomunicipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Dung said the city pays greatattention to promoting investment and cooperation in agriculture, adding thatit has continually created a favourable investment environment for foreignbusinesses, including those from Japan.
At the meeting, the two sides reviewedagricultural cooperation between Vietnam and Japan from 2015 to 2019 andassessed the agriculture and food value chain programmes JICA has carried outto bolster Japanese investment in the country, including Can Tho.
They also looked into challenges facing anddemand of cooperatives and businesses, especially small- and medium-sized ones,in agriculture and food value chain so as to set up cooperation directions./.
VNA
