According to the MPI, new policies are needed to encourage enterprises toinvest in agriculture and rural areas and take advantage of new opportunitiesfor Vietnamese agricultural products under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement(EVFTA).
The new decree, which will replace Decree 57/2018 on mechanisms and policies toencourage enterprises to invest in agriculture and rural areas, is also aimedto ensure compliance with recently issued laws like the Law on PublicInvestment in 2019, the Law on Investment in 2019 and the Enterprise Law in 2020.
In addition, the decree is expected to help respond to emerging problems inagricultural production, including a sharp increase in domestic pork prices(4-5 times higher than the pork price in the US) and serious impacts of theCOVID-19 pandemic.
In the draft, the MPI estimates the investment capital demand of theagricultural industry in 2021-25 is 107 trillion VND (4.6 billion USD), ofwhich 8.6 trillion VND is slated to come from the State budget to implementroughly 800 projects. The investment capital from the State budget is expectedto help attract about 9 trillion VND from enterprises investing in agricultureand rural areas as a domino effect.
The MPI expects the aid from the State budget to bring many economic, socialand environmental effects. If 100 agricultural enterprises with an investmentcapital of about 100 billion VND each are set up yearly, at least 10,000 directjobs and 30,000 indirect jobs will be generated, the ministry estimated.
The projects are expected to help build processing establishments foragricultural produce with waste treatment technologies in rural areas toprotect the environment and create jobs and incomes for rural labourers,towards sustainable rural development.
Under the draft decree, the State aid will focus on farming and processing ofagricultural products, forestry and fishery products; planting and protectingforests; making salt; producing plant seeds, livestock breeds and biotechnologyproducts.
The incentive policies will also aim to expand the market for stableconsumption of agricultural products, contributing to the speedierrestructuring of the agricultural industry./.