ISG Plenary Meeting 2017: “Integrating global agricultural value chain: Promotion of food safety and market linkages”.

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development through the International Support Group (ISG) held the ISG Plenary Meeting themed:  “Integrating global agricultural value chain: Promotion of food safety and market linkages” on December 11^th 2017. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Dutch Ambassador to Vietnam Nienke Trooster and Country Director for the World Bank in Vietnam, Ousmane Dione co-chaired the meeting. Over 200 delegates representing international organizations, sponsors, multinational corporations, government agencies, research institutes, universities, domestic and international agricultural experts and media agencies attended.

Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong noted and appreciated international organizations’ assistance in resources, advanced techniques, recommendations, models and experiences. However, the Minister stressed that Vietnam had to consider the last period as the development phase of breadth and utilization of cheap labor. The biggest bottleneck of Vietnam agriculture was high yeilds but low productivity, low quality and raw products in the international agricultural market. These bottlenecks needed untied in the Vietnam agriculture.

Dr. Nguyen Do Anh Tuan, Director of Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) said that Vietnamese agricultural exports were mostly low in technology, leaving little room for exports in the future. The comparative advantage index of Vietnam agriculture was on downward trend. In the production phase, apart from fragmented production scale, the current agriculture was facing to a number of problems, such as unreasonable use of raw materials and natural resources, limited application of science and technologies, especially high technologies, etc. Agricultural production organization was also inadequate with poor infrastructure system for agricultural production. Processing sector was slowly developing with only 25% - 30% of processing enterprises applying modern processing lines (while the ASEAN average was 50%).

Country Director for the World Bank in Vietnam, Ousmane Dione, appreciated the efforts of the agriculture in the participation of the global agricultural value chain with a large number of high-value export products, such as coffee, pepper, fisheries and especially fruits, etc. Ousmane Dione said: “The World Bank pledges to continuously support Vietnam to develop value chains and food safety. Apart from food safety, we need a comprehensive solution. The international community has various experiences and standards on food safety, and is willing to share with Vietnam. Besides, Vietnam should invest more in food safety”.

Dutch Ambassador to Vietnam, Nienke Trooster, said: “The Dutch government set up a Strategic Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Safety with Vietnam. The Netherlands also develops a Strategic Partnership for water and climate change. The Netherlands hopes to combine the power of the government, private sector, research institutes and civil society oraganizations to adopt a very cautious approach called "first regional policy". The Dutch government, the Vietnamese government and the World Bank are working to boost the cooperation on assessing and addressing food safety risks. The expansion of cooperation towards food safety development among these 3 partners was announced on July 10^th of this year during the visit of the Prime Minister of Vietnam to the Netherlands. The Prime Ministers of the Netherlands, Rutte, along with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and WB representative in Vietnam, Ousmane Dione signed a Tripartite Memorandum of Understanding. The memorandum aimed at the cooperation to upgrade the food safety inspection system at both national and local level, and the establishment of “National Reference Laboratories”.

Dr. JongHa Bae, FAO Representative in Vietnam said that FAO would support Vietnam to implement Green Growth Strategy (GGS) and address issues on Climate Change Mitigation (CCM), especially the National Target Program on New Rural Development targeted to increase the rural income by 1.5 times compared with that of 2015 by 2020.

The discussion session focused on areas from the shortcomings between modern global agricultural value chain and backward institutions in Vietnamese agricultural production; changes in approaches not only through supporting farmers and market connection, but also supporting the whole operating system; transfer from agricultural supply chains to value chains; some international organizations’ initiatives on motivating people to join sustainable value chains; commitments from international partners such as Canada, Netherlands, WB, ADB, FAO, etc. on improving the competitiveness of Vietnam agriculture through a variety of programs and projects during the upcoming period of 2017-2021.

Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong said: “It is vital to develop both domestic and international markets and distribution channels, ensure both quality and food safety, gradually build strong brands, negotiate to open export markets, stabilize traditional markets, search and expand potential markets; link domestic and international enterprises in sharing information, effective and low-emission production and trade linkage models, and green and sustainable agricultural development”. The Minister stressed, “there is no other way than Vietnam agricultural products participating in the global value chain”. The Minister asked the ISG to promote their role of international coordination to mobilize the synergy of international partners, and avoid overlapping, wastes and “gap” in areas that need invested for development. The agriculture will proactively review and advise the Government to complete the institution, policies and mechanisms, etc. to promote all social resources in Vietnam agricultural and rural development.

Through the ISG Plenary Meeting 2017, Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong thanked international organizations to accompany with Vietnam agriculture and farmers in new rural development, response to increasingly fierce climate change and participation in the sustainable global agricultural value chain.