Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong: Public Private Partnership is the key to sustainable agricultural development

On 11/9/2018, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong attended the inaugural Growth Asia Forum (GAF) and spoke about the implementation of “the new vision in agriculture until 2050” in front of around 200 delegates, leaders from the ASEAN Ministries of Agriculture, high-level guests from Asian countries, intra-ASEAN businesses and multinational corporations investing in the agricultural sector in ASEAN, international and non-governmental organizations.

Agriculture is the key economic sector of the majority of the ASEAN countries. Agro-forestry production in the region not only ensures intra-regional food security with a population of 650 million but also contributes to ensuring global food security. Discussing the implementation of the "New Vision in Agriculture" initiative launched by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2009, Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong said that the agricultural economy still played a very important role in many countries, so the new vision in agriculture is "a hit". To implement this vision, from 2010 Vietnam has promoted close cooperation between the state and the private sector through the activities of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Task Forces in the Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture in Vietnam (PSAV), aiming toward the sustainable growth of agriculture in Vietnam.

To date, PSAV has been successfully implementing 7 PPP task forces on: Coffee, Tea, Vegetables, Seafood, Pepper and Spices, Rice and Agricultural chemicals. "WEF has helped Vietnam introduce and recommend large corporations and businesses, to connect government with citizens and business people. From evaluating the activities that 7 commodity Task Forces have been implementing for more than 10 years so far, we have very good initial achievements:  Firstly, making use of different capital resources; secondly, strengthening governance and administration; Thirdly, to raise the income of the people, especially to create a chain of agricultural products as clean, efficient as we wished and distribute benefits equally between farmers, enterprises and commercial organizations"said the Minister.

Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong referenced that by using two models of public-private partnership co-organized by Néstle and Unilever, Vietnam has built two very effective coffee and tea task forces. In the case of the Néstle coffee chain, which has been the key of support, over the past seven years there has been a formation of raw material plantation areas and farmers have learned how to produce high yields, while protecting the environment, so that the ultimate effect is highest. "Nestle as the key investors along with other Vietnamese companies are doing well on their way to following the technical guidance, management guidance, purchasing of agricultural products, processing and distribution of value chains. Therefore, we think this is one of the very good models and in the coming time this will be open to apply to other sector, "- said the Minister.

With regard to tea, the Minister said Unilever was one of the most well-coordinated key components in Vietnam. As in Tuyen Quang, the model of public-private partnership has clearly confirmed the economic efficiency, the second pillar is the environment, most of the management of pesticides in these areas are very good, reducing the use of chemicals but increased productivity, efficiency. "At present, specifically for this model, a lot of farmers are applying to join this mechanism," - Minister shared with the delegates of the meeting.

In 2009, the World Economic Forum (WEF) launched the "New Vision in Agriculture" initiative, which aims to increase agricultural productivity by 20%, reduce carbon emissions by 20% and reduce Poverty rates to 20% every decade until 2050. Vietnam is one of the first countries to commit to implementing WEF's New Vision in Agriculture. The vision has been joined by 350 countries and member organizations of the WEF worldwide and establishes high-level foreign relations with the G7 and G20.

According to Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong, the world population has now reached 7.5 billion people, while the demand for food consumption of the world average is 15% of the GDP. This is one of the great opportunities for agriculture to grow. "We have to confirm that public-private investment is one of the key methods to implement the vision of sustainable agricultural development, achieving each national agricultural goals. Therefore, we have to review and re-evaluate seven task forces of PPPs made with WEF and other corporations - there are many effective groups, the results are very high, but there are still some groups that need more efforts in action. Therefore, we need to revaluate those successful models to multiply into several applications.

The Minister had shared with the delegates attending the forum that this year Vietnam can export $40 billion in agricultural products. "If we do well in each step from raw materials to processing, market organization and deepening the links from farmers to businesses, to the corporation, the value would increase. Obviously, to do that, there is no other way than public-private partnerships. This will be one of the key, most fundamental solutions to the WEF vision of agriculture."the minister said.

Within the framework of the Grow Asia Forum, the Minister met and worked with Croplife Vietnam representative, a member of PSAV (co-chair of PPP Task force on Agro-chemicals) and Archer Daniels Midland Corporation (ADM) in the United States (specializing in food production, processing of oilseeds, maize production and processing, animal feed production, and agricultural technology services) to express the need for investment and trade cooperation in the field of animal feed production.

Talking with the Minister, representatives of Croplife Vietnam and the Bayer Group expressed their support for the vision of MARD and urged the Vietnamese Government to promote the agricultural sector’s reform to ensure food security and sustainable agricultural development. One of the suggestions proposed by Croplife Vietnam is the desire of the ministry to build a legal corridor based on scientific evidences that takes into account environmental damage and human health, avoids drug abuse in plant protection. In this regard, the Minister emphasized: "The motto for both sides to develop sustainably is to implement the Integrated Pests Management (IPM). In doing so, everyone wins."