Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnamese Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the Japanese Ministryof Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) signed an agreement ontechnological cooperation in irrigation and drainage, protection of marineresources, and responsible management of the fisheries sector at the5th Japan-Vietnam Agricultural Cooperation Dialogue and a public- private agricultural cooperation forum which took place virtually on December12.
At thedialogue, Vietnamese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong and Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Kotaro Nogami reviewed cooperationresults between the two ministries in the past period, and agreed to jointlyimplement the Mid-term and long-term Vision on agricultural cooperation betweenthe two countries in the 2020 -2024period, concentrating on completing agricultural infrastructure, includingirrigation works, infrastructure facilitiesto support agricultural value chains, protectingthe environment and responding to climate change.
Especially, the two sides will also work closely to promote investment byprivate enterprises and apply technological advances to improve the governance capacityof agricultural value chains.
According to Nogami, Vietnam ranks 6th among the agricultural product importersof Japan, so the new vision that the two sides have just signed will helppromote value chain development and expand investment opportunities between thetwo countries.
Vietnam wants to attract and cooperate with enterprises to invest in and applyhigh technologies in agricultural production, processing, preservation anddistribution of agricultural products and foodstuff, he stressed.
The first period of the Mid-term and long-term Vision on agricultural cooperationbetween the two countries in the 2015-2019 period focused on supporting Vietnam'sagriculture in building food value chains, responding to climate change and training high quality human resources.
A total of 11 technical assistance projects using non-refundable official development assistanceand Japanese loans-funded projects were implemented in the framework of theVision with a total investment of about 750 million USD./.