Vietnamese agricultural experts have discusses ways to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector from 2008 to 2015 at a seminar held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in Hanoi December 16.
By end of November 2008, the ministry said the sector had attracted 965 FDI projects with total registered capital of more than US$4.7 billion, accounting for 10 per cent of total project number, and 3.3 per cent of investment capital of the country.
Of the total investment in the sector, 37 per cent was pumped into the cultivation of crops and farm produce processing projects; 35 per cent went to forest planting and timber processing projects; and 21 per cent to livestock breeding projects, feed production and the processing of related products.
But the experts agreed that foreign investment in the agricultural sector is still extremely limited and incommensurate with Vietnam’s potential for the development of this sector.
They said while the FDI flow into Vietnam has been increasing in the recent past, becoming a regional economic phenomenon, the agriculture-forestry-fishery sector appears to have been left out of this boom.
The MARD admitted that the shortcomings in land, materials supply, post-harvesting technology and product sales have created limitations in the attraction and implementation of FDI projects in the agricultural sector.
However, the amount of capital being invested in agricultural, forestry and fishery projects has been increasing lately. While the additional capital represents only 3 per cent of the total registered capital for the 1991-1995 period, this increased to 32 per cent for the 1996-2000 period and nearly 40 per cent for the 2001-2005 period.
On measures to attract long-term investment to this sector, economists from the Foreign Investment Association and the Vietnam Tea Association stressed that it is necessary to train personnel in project management and to perfect the country’s legal system in order to ensure sustainable development and maintain levels of environmental protection.
The MARD also plans to implement a program to improve the efficiency of FDI in the agricultural sector throughout 2008-2015, stating that FDI attraction is a priority matter, particularly at a time when ODA flow is in decline and the level of available capital from the state budget and other domestic sources is limited. (VNA, Vietnam Economic Times)
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