Developing Commodity-oriented Agriculture (27/7)
27/07/2011 - 12 Lượt xem
What is your assessment of the connectivity in agriculture development between the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City?
Although Ho Chi Minh City and provinces in the Mekong Delta have highly similar awareness and points of view for agriculture development, related connectivity results remain modest. Ho Chi Minh City went to individual localities in the delta and encouraged the city's leading businesses to invest in the Mekong Delta. This is a concrete action that highly benefits both Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta. With its workforce and technology strengths and as an economic center in Southeast Asia, Ho Chi Minh City is determined to work with provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta under the principle of mutual benefit and development.
In the coming time, the agriculture sector will be bringing into play comparative advantages of Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta to construct a commodity-oriented agriculture that has the biggest scale here in Vietnam, approaches high productivity and quality and meets all food safety and hygiene standards inside and outside the country. It is necessary to build close connectivity between Ho Chi Minh City and provinces in the Mekong Delta in order to create high quality products with the latest technology. This is aimed at improving Vietnamese farm produce's competitiveness in foreign markets. Ho Chi Minh City cooperates with the Mekong Delta to make use of favorable natural conditions of that biggest agricultural production center in Vietnam.
The Southwestern Region Steering Committee worked with the Mekong Delta Development Research Institute to prepare an agriculture development connectivity project. This project was already assessed. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will be submitting the project to the Prime Minister for approval. The project refers to connectivity between scientists, businesses, the State and farmers, in which scientists play a ruling role in development connectivity. Development connectivity should be built based on comparative advantages of specific localities to avoid overlapping performance.
What do you think about Mekong Delta localities' role in the region's economic and agricultural development?
The role of localities in the Mekong Delta was initially apparent but they haven't brought into play their potentials and advantages. They have proved their role in agriculture development connectivity but their performance is not yet persuasive. They are not yet open-minded and self-conscious in cooperation. This is a weakness of all of them. I suggest that Mekong Delta provinces and cities include self-reliance in making use of potentials in their resolutions, and cooperate with specific regions to encourage scientists to join development research projects. We are still developing quantitatively more than we are doing qualitatively. In the coming time, with its ruling role, Ho Chi Minh City should assist provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta in scientific and technological development and application so they can improve growth quality.
What new policies will the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have to encourage the Mekong Delta's agriculture to develop in proportion with the region's potentials?
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development currently has three major programs promoting agriculture development. One of these is agricultural infrastructure development planning. The ministry is implementing projects/programs funded by state capital, official development assistance (ODA) capital and businesses' capital to invest in agriculture. It worked with the Ministry of Transport to develop infrastructure and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to develop product processing, create high quality products and construct distribution networks (trade and tourism infrastructure) so the Mekong Delta's agricultural potential can be thoroughly exploited.
Could you tell about the orientation for agriculture development in the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City for the period from 2011-2015 and to 2020?
According to Resolution 26/NQ-TW on agriculture, farmers and rural areas, there are 54 projects for agriculture development in the Mekong Delta and Vietnam as a whole. It is necessary to have a long-term schedule for the resolution's implementation, while scientific, technological, workforce and infrastructure conditions need to be created. If the resolution's orientation is well followed the contribution of agriculture in the Mekong Delta in particular and Vietnam in general to the country's socioeconomic development will increase and agriculture will develop qualitatively./.
Source: VEN.
