Solutions to attract businesses to invest in agriculture and rural areas

On the first day of the new year, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc assigned ministries and sectors with priority tasks in the first quarter of 2018. In this regard, the Ministry of Planning and Investment is preparing a seminar on "Solutions to attract businesses to invest in agriculture and rural areas".

This issue has been urged by the Prime Minister, as many businesses are in need of support to accelerate their investment in the sector as soon as possible. Over all, agricultural products have contributed a big proportion of the export turnover in recent years.

At the present, there are still many barriers at ministerial and local levels causing problems for businesses. Policies to attract investment in agriculture lack stability as well as safety and sustainability. In particular, the procedures for accessing incentives are cumbersome, complicated, requiring a lot of time and effort. Tax policies (VAT, enterprise income, personal income…) are also unequal among entities in the same sector of production, business. Taxes on exporting agricultural products, or importing advanced technology to apply in agriculture sector are still high. Taxes for enterprises investing in key agricultural sectors should be considered for reduction and exemption because they are not in comply with the policies and investment orientation by the Government.

Enterprises also proposed to the competent authorities to consider amending Decision No. 69/2010/QD-TTg on the competence, order and procedures for recognition of agricultural enterprises applying hi-technology, ensuring the feasibility and motivation for enterprises, increasing decentralization and assigned authorization to localities. In the mean time, Viet Nam has not yet had a fully functioned agricultural trading floor to control quality, output and value for agricultural products, as well as promoting agricultural businesses towards developing e-commerce ... Within this sector, the government needs to strongly encourage private sector to build a commercial transaction platform for agricultural products, based on learning e-commerce experiences in many countries in the region and in the world.