Difficulties facing foreign businesses investing in agriculture inVietnam, especially those concerning policies on land, infrastructure,tax and administrative procedures, were pointed out at a conference inHanoi on July 13.

Held by the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, the event was organised to gather opinions to the draftingof a decree on encouraging foreign investment into the country’sagricultural sector.
A representative from NestleVietnam highlighted questions from foreign investors on how to investin agriculture in Vietnam, saying foreign companies hesitate to funnelcapital into the field due to difficulties caused by Vietnam’s Land Law.

The Decree should clarify high-tech agriculture investment and tax policies, participants stressed.

Accordingto representatives from Syngenta Vietnam , the firm hasinvested in a centre for researching rice varieties in the northernprovince of Nam Dinh and another for researching plant protectionchemical solutions in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, but it isnot permitted to rent land from local farmers to serve the company’sexperiments.

They asked for appropriate measures and policies to facilitate foreign agriculture investment in Vietnam.

TranThi Thanh Tam from the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry said itis necessary to encourage businesses to invest in hi-tech sectors,post-harvest processing and developing infrastructure facilities foragricultural production.

At the conference, participants fromthe Japan International Cooperation Agency ( JICA ) revealed Japan’shesitation to import farm products from Vietnam, saying furtherattention is needed to ensure the safety of farm products.-VNA