Agriculture sector has overcome the "headwind"

Through a period of great turmoil, the agricultural sector has overcome "headwinds" and achieved many valuable results.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended and chaired the conference to review the work in 2023 and deploy tasks for 2024 of the agriculture and rural development sector.

On the afternoon of January 3, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended and chaired the conference to review the work in 2023 and deploy tasks for 2024 of the agriculture and rural development sector.

Speaking at the Conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh acknowledged and highly appreciated the results achieved by the agricultural sector in 2023. The agricultural sector had a year of "good harvest and good prices".

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh commented that, after a period of great change, the agricultural sector has overcome the “headwinds” and achieved many valuable results. Vietnam’s agricultural sector has changed from being passive and confused to being proactive, confident, and creative, putting forward many initiatives to turn the situation around. In terms of production and processing, people and businesses have also changed their state from being defensive and resistant to making breakthroughs in agriculture.

The fruit and vegetable industry contributed greatly to the export value, with a record figure of 5.6 billion USD, 1.5 times higher than the previous record set in 2018 of 3.81 billion USD. In addition, durian has risen to become the number 1 fruit and vegetable export item, with a turnover of more than 2 billion USD in 2023.

The Prime Minister affirmed that Vietnam’s economy is a bright spot in the region, according to the assessment of multilateral development banks. In particular, agricultural, forestry and fishery trade contributes to stabilizing people’s lives.

Last year, Vietnam had a trade surplus of 28 billion USD, partly because we reduced imports of processed materials. Enterprises and farmers tend to use domestic input materials, contributing to market stability.

According to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, the agricultural sector has demonstrated its position and role as a pillar of the economy, contributing to curbing inflation, creating jobs, and increasing people's income.

After 30 years of renovation, Vietnam has transformed from a country that had to import food to a rice exporter in the top 3 in the world. Thanks to new varieties, quality, and technical advances, rice output last year reached 43.4 million tons, up 1.7% compared to 2022, despite a decrease in area of ​​about 9,000 hectares.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that food production plays an important role in controlling inflation. Food and beverage services account for 33.56% of the “basket” of goods and services used to calculate the CPI.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, together with ministries, branches and localities, has flexibly and creatively implemented many tasks, focusing on building and submitting many programs and projects such as the Rural Industry Development Strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045; Project on Sustainable Development of 1 million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta region to 2030.

At the same time, organize many major events of national and international scale such as Festival for preservation and development of Vietnamese craft villages, Shrimp Festival, International Festival of rice industry. Together with ministries and branches, build a number of laws that have been passed.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has also proactively proposed that the Government leaders work with the Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association and the Vietnam Association of Seafood Processors and Exporters to remove difficulties and promote the production and export of forestry and seafood products. Based on the Ministry's proposal, the Prime Minister requested the State Bank to have a preferential credit package of VND15,000 billion, of which more than 70% has been disbursed so far. The Prime Minister affirmed that the Government and the State Bank are ready to provide credit support for the agricultural sector.

Along with that, the agricultural sector changes its thinking from agricultural production to agricultural economics, promotes agriculture to promote new growth drivers, industrializes agriculture, and builds intellectual farmers. These are new ideas aimed at industrializing and modernizing agriculture, improving the level, understanding capacity, and skills of farmers.

In that spirit, the agricultural sector has achieved a GDP growth rate of 3.83%, the highest in recent times. According to the Prime Minister, this is a high contribution, solving the problem of employment in rural areas, solving inflation, and affirming its supporting role.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to set a target of GDP growth rate of the whole sector from 3.5 - 4.0%; agricultural, forestry and fishery export turnover from 55 billion USD or more.

To achieve this goal, the Prime Minister requested the agricultural sector to overcome difficulties and challenges, "turning nothing into something, turning difficult into easy", closely following the Government's guiding motto with 16 words: Discipline, responsibility, proactiveness, timely, accelerating creativity, sustainable efficiency; strictly implementing the Resolutions of the Party, National Assembly, Government; and the directions of the Government and Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to do a good job of forecasting, providing market information on supply and demand; effectively implementing FTAs, while expanding and reducing dependence on a number of markets, promoting digital transformation, green transformation, and circular economy.

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