More agricultural cooperation space with China and Japan

Minister Le Minh Hoan had a meeting with the Chinese and Japanese delegations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (VAN) recently to clarify issues related to agricultural cooperation with these two countries.

In an overview, with China, the Minister mentioned locating a base for this market, and as for Japan,  cooperation in human resources training requires further attention.

Assessing and cooperating

Reporting to Minister Le Minh Hoan, Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam, the leader of the MARD delegation working in Guangxi, Yunnan said that this is a very large market, showing in its high percentage of bilateral trade turnover.

" Yunnan only has temperate agro-products and the demand for fresh and processed seafood is very large, so there is a lot of potential for Vietnam's agricultural exports," he said.

But according to the Deputy Minister, border trade and smart trade infrastructure between Vietnam and China needs to be further improved to heighten trade efficiency in the context that agro-products from many countries competing with Vietnam hold the advantage of logistics infrastructure.

Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam suggested establishing an agricultural enterprise association between Vietnam, Guangxi and Yunnan. In essence, these will be agricultural supply chains between the two countries which help reduce a lot of intermediary stages.

Regarding cooperation with China, Minister Le Minh Hoan said that it is necessary to assess this market in a fundamental way, officially as a large and methodical market, thereby helping farmers and businesses feel secure in production and trade with customers of the neighboring country.

“The establishment of an association is necessary, but we need to select worthy businesses, besides focusing on communication. It is important to have coordination and mutual respect. Therefore, the chosen ones must be those with passion and devotion for the business," said the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Minister Le Minh Hoan also mentioned diversifying the transport routes of agro-products from Vietnam to China. In addition to road transport, there are also waterways and railways. Another thing to note is cooperation in personnel training between the two sides. The Minister emphasized the need for Vietnamese agricultural personnel to be fluent in Chinese to facilitate cooperation.

Gaining knowledge and bringing it back to the homeland

Regarding the business trip to Japan, Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam there were issues that he need to report to the Minister. The first was that the Japanese side wished to have more skilled agricultural workers from Vietnam working in Japan, both seasonally and long-term. They mainly asked for human resources in the forestry industry, but along with that came the requirement for labor management.

Next was the offshore fishing force, which Japan has higher regard than the manpower of some other Southeast Asian countries. Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam showed a clip about a small port at the district level in Japan, with a capacity of just over 10 fishing vessels, but it was a very reasonable model. “This small model has the advantage of low cost, ease of operation, management and local control,” said Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam.

As for training activities, Minister Le Minh Hoan emphasized the value of training agricultural human resources with the mindset of always gaining konwledge in order to bring it back and deploy in the homeland. He also noted that the units coordinate with the Japanese delegation of Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep to have a joint report on agricultural labor in this country.

Minister Le Minh Hoan required the relevant units to focus more on training at the grassroots level. To be more specific, the local agricultural extension forces should be sent to school so they can spread knowledge and experience when they return to their localities. On the other hand, workers returning from Japan with language, understanding of culture and expertise will be the real incentive to attract more Japanese businesses to invest in Vietnam.