Illustrative image (Source: VNA)The presence of Tran Ba Duong, CEO of Truong Hai autocompany at an agricultural conference where he shared his plan to invest in theagriculture sector, has surprised many.
The automobile industry tycoon held that Vietnameseagriculture can hardly develop without industry, asserting that industrialfirms strong in capital should join the sector to create standardised models inagricultural production.
Duong reckoned that post-harvest transportation and preservationare the weakness of agriculture. However, the mechanisation of agriculture mustsuit the real situation in Vietnam.He revealed that his firm is working with the An Giang-based Loc Troi Group tobuild a post-harvest industrial complex for rice in the northern region, whichwill provide transportation, harvest and processing at reasonable costs.
Meanwhile, Vu Van Tien, CEO of Geleximco Group, said thatthe number of businesses engaging in agriculture sector remains few.
To succeed in agriculture, businesses need sufficient productionland and capital, he said, calling for support policies in the field.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, about 4,000 enterprises out of the total 600,000 Vietnamese firmsare investing in agriculture.
The interest of big investors in agriculture is hoped toopen up a new chapter for the sector’s development, but land and capital arestill major obstacles.
At a recent conference on building an agricultural industry,Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc assigned ministries and sectors to submitsolutions to problems facing agriculture to the Government and authorisedagencies.
The PM revealed that the Government is considering piloting aland bank and land use market together with setting up some insurance funds foragriculture to support farmers.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has devised a credit packageworth 50 trillion VND for high-tech and clean agriculture production, which hasbeen assigned to the Bank for Agriculture.
The PM has requested the SBV to create favourable lending mechanismand allow more commercial banks to disburse the package.-VNA
VNA
