Agriculture sector achieved growth targets

At the annual wrap-up meeting of agriculture and rural development sector on 23 December 2019, Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong said that in 2019, the agricultural sector has reached the 3 (out of 4) big goals, including: export criteria, forest cover and number of communes meeting new rural standards. Particularly, GDP growth target was only 2.2%, mainly due to the African swine fever (ASF) which reduced about 1.1% of the whole sector’s growth.

At the Meeting, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) proposed the Government to direct ministries and sectors to review and renovate mechanisms and policies to support the promotion of agricultural restructuring, agricultural development and new rural construction. In 2020, the Government would submit to the National Assembly amendments and supplements to the Land Law in the directions of prioritizing removal of constraint in the land policies, developing the land use right market to create more favorable conditions for land accumulation and concentration for large-scale agriculture production.

For attracting businesses to invest in agriculture, Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong stated that the Decree No. 57/2018 / ND-CP on mechanisms and policies to encourage enterprises to invest in agriculture and rural areas provided that "The central budget shall allocate at least 5% of the annual development investment capital to agricultural sector; the budget of the provinces and cities under the Central Government shall spend at least 5% of the annual local budget expenditure on agriculture". However, the fact that up to now, the central and local budgets have hardly been allocated or very little to support businesses. Therefore, it was request that the Prime Minister directed ministries and localities to work out plans to balance the allocation of resources in accordance with the Decree regulations.

In 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) actively reviewed and adjusted appropriate strategies, plans and production structures basing on advantages, markets and climate change adaptation. Market opening and trade promotion for agriculture, forestry and fisheries were much attended, that promptly solved obstacles so as to promote export to traditional markets and expand to potential markets and to increase trade surplus from agriculture, forestry and fishery export. The National target program on New rural development (NTP-NRD) was completed 1.5 years earlier than planned.

Regarding the orientations for the coming year, Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong emphasized: In 2020, it is important as the Party Congress will take place at all levels towards the XIII^th National Party Congress; the year to breakthrough for completion of the 5-year plan 2016 - 2020. In order to successfully implement the objectives and tasks as set, the entire agricultural sector identified “Building a modern agriculture, international integration, adapting to climate change, raising added value and sustainable development, in association with building a prosperous and civilized new rural area”. Basic targets for the agriculture and rural development sector in 2020 are including: GDP growth rate of the sector shall be 2.8 - 3%; The growth rate of production value of agriculture, forestry and fishery is about 2.9 - 3.05%; Export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery is over 42 billion USD; Forest coverage rate is 42%; The rate of communes meeting new rural standards will be 59%; at least 121 district-level units meet / complete the task of building a new countryside; The proportion of rural population using hygienic water is 96%; Newly established 2,000 agricultural cooperatives; The whole country has 17,000 agricultural cooperatives (2,000 cooperative higher than the target assigned by the National Assembly and the Government).