In a conference in Tokyo Vietnam has urged for Japanese investment in agricultural production and rural development. The meeting was jointly held by Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the ASEAN-Vietnam Centre and the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan.
Speaking in the conference MARD Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam said the government of Vietnam has always attached great importance to drawing foreign direct investment for agricultural and rural development, thereby adopting a series of incentive investment policies for foreign investors in the field.
It is reported that till now Vietnam has 956 FDI projects in agriculture, forestry and fisheries and rural development, accounting for 10 percent of the total number of FDI projects but only 3.3 percent of the combine registered capital nationwide. Deputy Minister Tam promised prospective Japanese investors who attended the meeting that they would enjoy favourable conditions when choosing Vietnam , such as stable socio-political stability, convenient trade and transport and an abundant labour force.
Meanwhile, market analyst Nobuo Kato of the Policy Research Institute under the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries confirmed that Japan and Vietnam have a great potential to cooperate in agricultural, forestry and fisheries.
In addition, Vietnamese businesses lack information about Japan ’s customs and food safety standards, as well as financial and technical capacity to meet Japanese partners’ requirements.
On the other hand the Japanese expert recommended several measures to boost the bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and Japan in the area, including improving trade promotion activities, speeding up modernisation and centralisation of agricultural production in Vietnam, improving the food safety and hygienic management capacity, developing new products and accelerating marketing campaigns and increasing cooperation between state agencies and investors.
