Hanoi (VNA) –The Government has issued a resolutionto encourage businesses to invest in agriculture, as part of efforts to bringthe Vietnamese agricultural sector into world’s top 15 and processing of farmproduce into the global top 10 in 2030.

The resolution defines agricultural firms’ key role inpromoting the sector’s production and enhancing the competitiveness ofVietnamese farm produce.

Several solutions were given in the resolution, including balancingcredit for agricultural development and strengthening connectivity among banksand businesses.

The Ministry of Finance was asked to coordinate withministries, sectors, localities and farmers to design favourable mechanisms forfarmers and cooperatives to access land resources to form concentratedproduction and processing areas.

According to Minister of Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentNguyen Xuan Cuong, the new policies will motivate companies to invest in agriculture.

The ministry will build strategies, plans and projects toboost the sustainable growth of the sector, with priority given to expanding majorproducts and the processing of vegetable, aquatic and wooden products, he said.

In the first six months of this year, 1,634 new businesses enteredthe sector, raising the total agricultural companies to nearly 11,000.

However, agricultural firms have accounted for only about 8percent of the total enterprises of the country, while agro-forestry-fisheries companiesmake up a mere 1 percent of the total firms.

Meanwhile, the growth of the firms has yet to match thesector’s potential in land resources, ecosystem and labour resources.

Vice Director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy forAgricultural Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment Tran Cong Thang noted that 96 percent of businesses investing inagriculture are small- and macro-sized firms with modest capacity.

At the same time, Vietnamese agricultural production’s scaleis small, with poor infrastructure system. The market for farm produce is unstable,while there is still a lack of tools for the prevention of risks for thesector.

Dam Quang Thang, Director of Agricare Vietnam, said localitiesshould design smooth mechanisms and legal corridors in land accumulation tofacilitate the application of high technology in agriculture.

They should support businesses to engage in national tradepromotion programmes and update them with information on the internationalmarket, he stated.

However, experts said businesses must strengthenconnectivity to form big economic groups with strong capacity and resources tobring high technology into production, reduce cost, enhance competitiveness andbuild strong trademarks for Vietnamese farm produce.-VNA