Promote investment in agriculture and rural areas in the Mekong Delta

Overview of the conference

Attending the conference were representatives of ministries, departments, central branches and localities of the Mekong Delta provinces; representatives of a number of international organisations, industry associations, businesses, investors, and experts in the field of agriculture and rural development.

According to MARD, the Mekong Delta is an important agricultural economic region, contributing over 33% of the country’s agricultural GDP and 30% of the region’s GDP. The Mekong Delta ranks first in the country in terms of rice, seafood and fruit production. The region contributes 56% of rice production (24.5 million tons), 98% of pangasius production (1.41 million tons) and 60% of the country’s fruits (4.3 million tons), 95% of rice exports and 60% of Vietnam’s seafood exports.

Yet, in the past few years, the Mekong Delta economic region has been facing many difficulties and challenges in attracting investment in agriculture and rural development due to inadequate infrastructure, especially transportation and irrigation systems, electricity, and means of communication. Farmers’ production level and labour productivity are low. Mechanisms and policies to encourage investment are not yet consistent and not attractive to investors. To solve the above difficulties, the Government has issued a number of policies to encourage investment in agriculture and rural areas in the Mekong Delta.

As a result, by 2023, total investment capital in agriculture in the Mekong Delta reached about VND100,000 billion, an increase of 15% compared to 2022. Large investment projects such as, 100,000 tons/year rice processing factory in Long An province (VND1,000 billion of capital); high-tech fruit growing and processing project in Tien Giang province (VND500 billion); high-tech aquaculture project in Ca Mau province (VND200 billion of capital)…

At the conference, delegates discussed, presented issues: policy to encourage investment in agriculture and rural development in the Mekong Delta; Challenges and opportunities to promote investment in aquaculture in the Mekong Delta in the new context; Green investment trend in agriculture in the Mekong Delta…

Therefore, to attract investment capital in agriculture and rural development in the Mekong Delta, it is necessary to focus on improving infrastructure. This is an important factor in attracting investment and creating favourable conditions for production and business enterprises. All levels, sectors, and localities need to focus on investing in building and upgrading transportation, irrigation, electricity, and communication systems, especially in agricultural and fishery industrial zones and clusters. At the same time, improve the production level of farmers and apply science and technology to production. Localities need to create an open investment environment to attract domestic and foreign investors.

Mr. Tran Thanh Nam, MARD’s Deputy Minister suggested a number of issues for the Mekong Delta region to research and implement, such as good exploitation of agricultural products from fruit trees, rice, and aquatic products. The Mekong Delta provinces need to quickly implement the project of sustainable development of 1 million hectares specialising in high-quality rice cultivation, with emissions associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta right in the winter-spring rice crop of 2023-2023, on an area of 180,000 hectares. Simultaneously, businesses in the rice industry need to share benefits with farmers on the basis of close links with farmers and cooperatives…

In addition, the region needs to promote investment in infrastructure and logistics, especially in large concentrated raw material areas, including cool warehouses for classification, preservation, and preliminary processing to help improve quality and stabilise prices, increase competitiveness for exported agricultural products to enhance the industry value chain…

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