The agricultural sector has the highest growth rate in recent times.

BTO-On the afternoon of January 3 in Hanoi, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development held an online conference to review the work in 2023 and deploy the plan for 2024. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended and directed.

The conference was connected online to 63 points of the provinces and centrally run cities, with the participation of leaders of central departments, ministries, and branches, provinces and centrally run cities. At the Binh Thuan province bridge, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Hong Hai chaired, along with representatives of a number of relevant departments, agencies, and branches.

*Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the conference of the Agriculture and Rural Development sector on the afternoon of January 3 (photo: VGP).*

According to the report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the agricultural and rural sector implemented the 2023 plan in conditions with mixed advantages, difficulties and challenges. However, the whole sector has made a strong shift to agricultural economic thinking, international integration, closely following reality, directing decisively and flexibly, and making efforts to overcome many difficulties. Therefore, in 2023, the GDP growth of the entire agricultural sector was 3.83%, the highest in many recent years, contributing greatly to the 5.05% growth of the economy. The total export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery products remained high, over 53 billion USD; the highest trade surplus ever was 12.07 billion USD, up 43.7%. By the end of 2023, the whole country will have about 6,370/8,167 (78%) communes meeting new rural standards (NTM), of which 1,612 communes will meet advanced NTM standards and 256 communes will meet model NTM standards.

*Conference at Binh Thuan province bridge.*

In addition, the industry still has limitations such as value chain linkage to promote mechanization, high technology application, and increase added value is not popular. Coordination in regulating production and prices of some essential goods is not really effective. There are still hot spots of deforestation, illegal transportation and storage of forest products...

At the conference, a number of provinces, cities, associations, and industries made statements assessing the achievements of the local agricultural sector in the past year. In Binh Thuan province alone, in 2023, the entire sector achieved and exceeded 12/13 targets, 1/13 targets reached 86.9% of the plan. The growth rate of added value of the agricultural, forestry and fishery sector in 2023 reached 3.31%/2.81% of the plan. The weather is relatively favorable for agricultural production, the amount of water stored in dams ensures production, so the sowing time for the winter-spring and summer-autumn crops is on schedule. The area of short-term crops in 2023 exceeded 4% of the plan (200,454 ha/192,700 ha planned), up 1.4% compared to 2022; The province's food output in 2023 reached 843,893 tons/plan of 800,000 tons, reaching 105.5% of the plan.

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh acknowledged, commended and highly appreciated the efforts, attempts, results and achievements that the Agriculture and Rural Development sector has achieved in 2023. At the same time, he emphasized that the sector has a very important position and role in the country's development process, is a national advantage, and is a pillar of the economy. Farmers and rural areas have a strategic position in the cause of industrialization, modernization, national construction and defense.

The Prime Minister requested the sector to inherit and promote the achievements; implement the resolutions of the Party Central Committee, the National Assembly, and the Government on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas. The entire sector must truly unite, make efforts, and be determined to act with the highest level of action to adapt flexibly and effectively to the new context and situation; overcome all difficulties and challenges, seize new opportunities and fortunes in developing the agricultural sector; proactively and actively integrate into the international community comprehensively, deeply, substantially, and effectively. Successfully achieve the target in 2024 of achieving a growth rate of 3.5 - 4%.

The Prime Minister noted that the industry must have specific solutions to remove policy bottlenecks, create favorable conditions for people and businesses to access land and credit, and create new momentum for the development of commodity agriculture and the construction of new rural areas. On the other hand, it is necessary to promote mechanization and the application of science and technology, high technology, intelligence, and automation in agricultural production; focus on the selection and creation of varieties; develop industries serving agriculture, processing and preserving agricultural products, and increase the proportion of deep processing to increase the added value of products...

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