Hanoi (VNA) –♋ Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received visiting Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) Qu Dongyu and his delegation in Hanoi on February 6, during which he affirmed Vietnam’s appreciation for its long-standing cooperation with FAO, particularly in rural and agricultural development and sustainable food system transformation.

The Government leader took this occasion to express his gratitude for FAO’s emergency aid package worth 1.9 million USD, which helped Vietnamese people recover from Typhoon Yagi in September 2024. He believed the bilateral cooperation will continue to thrive. The PM noted that Vietnam remains actively engaged in global initiatives to ensure food security and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The country has also contributed significantly to global food security, especially by increasing rice exports at a time when some nations have restricted their rice trade due to supply chain disruptions. To strengthen the two sides’ cooperation, PM Chinh urged FAO to further support Vietnam in restructuring its agricultural sector toward higher added value, green growth, sustainability, smart development, and climate resilience, and digital transformation. He also called for more assistance from the organisation regarding the country’s rural industrialisation and urbanisation and digital transformation. Vietnam will collaborate with FAO on its 80th-anniversary celebrations this year and international cooperation programmes, while sharing experiences with African nations in land utilisation and poverty reduction, the PM affirmed. Qu spoke highly of Vietnam's achievements in development, poverty reduction, improving people's living standards, and agricultural growth, notably the successful implementation of the One Commune, One Product (OCOP) programme, and the export of agricultural products, especially rice and fruits. He expressed his confidence that Vietnam will continue to develop strongly, particularly in 2025, and may double its GDP scale in the coming years, on the path to becoming a high-income country, and providing an increasingly prosperous and happy life for its people. Affirming that Vietnam is a model with valuable achievements and lessons that many countries admire and wish to learn from, Qu said FAO consistently supports Vietnam's initiatives for sustainable, green agriculture, such as the programme of planting 1 million hectares of high-quality, and low-emission rice. He assessed that, despite having a limited land fund, Vietnam is in a historic position with unique conditions that no other country has, which allows for a transformation in sustainable, inclusive, and more effective and resilient agriculture and food systems, especially as Vietnamese farmers are relatively young and supported by state investment. The FAO Director-General urged the country to continue strengthening its cooperation with the organisation, particularly in playing a key role in successfully implementing the trilateral cooperation programmes between FAO, Vietnam, and African countries, as well as South-South collaboration, to contribute to sustainable agricultural and food system transformation around the world./.