Hanoi (VNA) –Vietnam is ready to coordinate with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)and international partners to achieve the targets of this year’s World Food Day(October 16), an official has said.

Deputy Minister ofAgriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh made the remark at a ceremonymarking the 41st World Food Day and the 76th anniversaryof FAO in Hanoi on October 15.

The World Food Day 2021,themed “Our actions are our future - Better production, better nutrition, abetter environment, and a better life”, aims to improve awareness of the demandfor support for the transition to more effective, flexible, and sustainablefood systems. It is also meant to call for joint actions to ensure that foodsystems are able to supply safe food with reasonable prices and adequatenutrition so that people everywhere can enjoy a dynamic and healthy life.

Doanh said agriculture playsa highly important role in ensuring food security and social and livelihoodstability for more than 60 percent of the rural population in Vietnam. It also contributes18.85 percent of the GDP.

Despite impacts of theCOVID-19 pandemic and climate change, agriculture has firmly guaranteed foodsecurity for nearly 100 million people in the country and supply for export, henoted, adding that agricultural exports brought home 35.5 billion USD in thefirst nine months of 2021, up 18 percent year on year.

Not only paying attention toagricultural production, Vietnam also attaches importance to the role ofdigital technology and innovation in improving food productivity and safety. Ithas worked to connect producers with consumers, minimise food losses andwastefulness, boost the resilience of the farm produce supply chain, andpromote green and sustainable consumption - an effective solution to protectthe environment and community health towards sustainable development, accordingto the deputy minister.

Vietnam is ready to coordinatewith FAO and international partners to work towards the targets of this year’sWorld Food Day, thereby helping achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals,Doanh said.

He added the country alsowishes to continue receiving assistance and support from FAO in the time ahead.

Francisco Pichon, CountryDirector of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), saidthemes related to nutrition and gender equality will be the key issues in thenext cooperation programmes between FAO and Vietnam.

He noted the FAO-Vietnamcooperation and actions today are to ensure that no one is left behind, therewill be no malnutrition or inequality in the future, and better production,better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life are secured forVietnamese people.

In September, the first UNFood Systems Summit was held to create consensus on new actions to change theways the world produces and consumes food so as to achieve the SustainableDevelopment Goals.

Deputy Minister Doanh said PresidentNguyen Xuan Phuc’s participation in this event demonstrated Vietnam’scommitment to shifting to and developing a transparent, responsible, andsustainable food system in the “new normal”./.