PM highlights role of businesses, private sector in agricultural development

The call was made by the Government chief at a conference on investment promotion in agriculture and rural areas in the northern province of Thai Binh on April 8.

The PM said that the process of industrialization and modernization may not be totally successfully if agriculture and rural development are not promoted as 60-70% of the country population live in rural and mountainous areas.

Despite adverse weather conditions in 2016, the nation gained more than US$32 billion from exporting agricultural products, enjoying the trade surplus of US$7.5 billion.

An this conference was designed to wake up potentials of the agriculture and rural development, he said.

From now on, businesses is the main force in establishing a new agriculture model in order to generate farm produce  suitable with the world's demands and standadrs, the Government chief said.

The success of the agriculture sector depends on close coordination among stakesholders like State, investors, farmers, scientists and banks, in which businesses take the lead in deepening the agriculture sector's integration into the global market.

He took the occasion to urge Thai Binh province to change its mindset from "food security" to "nutrition security", which means the locality needs to focus on high-quality and clean agriculture, intensive processing to raise competitiveness of agricultural products.

At the conference, 33 projects with the total registered of VND25,658 billion were granted with investment decisions.