Illustrative photo (source: VNA) According to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)’ssenior advisor Ichiro Abe, Vietnam’s agriculture sector has high potential inforeign investment attraction and future development.
He noted that the Southeast Asian country’s strength incoffee, cashew, peppercorn, rice, rubber and tea has helped the country becomethe world’s most abundant source of supply for agricultural materials.
Vietnam has also been considered a large market of farmproduces, especially high quality products, he said, adding that the country isan important gateway for other countries to access the massive markets of theASEAN and China.
Ichiro Abe said the Japanese Government is encouragingJapanese businesses to invest in Vietnam’s agriculture through the forms of jointventure or technology transfer to ensure sustainable growth.
Meanwhile, Le An Hai, deputy head of the Asia-Pacific Marketunder the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that Vietnam and Japan haveshared a long-standing collaboration in agriculture with many agreementsreached in market opening for Vietnamese products through commitments in taxreduction as part of free trade agreements between Vietnam and Japan as well asASEAN and Japan.
However, agricultural exports have faced strict technicalbarriers in Japan, while competition is growing fiercer in the domestic marketagainst imported products, including those from Japan.
In order to increase the export of agricultural products to foreignmarkets in general and the Japanese market in particular, Hai suggested thatthe sector should work out a strategy to improve products’ quality and fostercooperation with countries with developed agriculture such as Japan.
Dr. Tran Minh Hai from the School for Management Officialsof Agriculture and Rural Development No.2, suggested Japanese businessescooperate with cooperatives in facilitate their investment. He noted thatVietnam currently has over 10,000 agricultural cooperatives, an economic formencouraged by the Government and localities through various support policies.
Linking up with the cooperatives will help Japanese firmseasily access larger production areas.
He also stressed that over 90 percent of the cooperativeshave only focused on production without effective marketing services, which isalso a chance for Japanese businesses.
To Viet Chau, deputy head of the Department of InternationalCooperation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, assertedthat agriculture is one of the sectors most vulnerable to global integration,adding that Vietnam hopes for Japan’s support in technology, equipment,processing technology to enhance its competitiveness.-VNA
VNA
