Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh urged the agriculture and rural development sector to focus on innovation, speed up digital and green transformation and promoting the development of circular economy, knowledge economy, and sharing economy, towards realising the goal of ecological agriculture, modern rural areas and civilised farmers.
Addressing a conference of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to review the sector’s operation in 2023 and launch its tasks in 2024 on January 3, the PM praised the agriculture sector for its success in overcoming challenges, thus reaping outstanding results such as setting new records in the export of vegetables and fruits and rice, contributing to affirming its increasingly important role and position.
The PM asked the sector to set higher targets for 2024, striving for a growth rate of 3.5-4% and at least 55 billion USD in export revenue of agro-fishery-forestry products.
The MARD should promote the restructuring of agricultural production based on main groups of products, fields and regions while seeking suitable and effective production models in connection with digital transformation and digital economy, he said.
Besides, the Government leader required the ministry to exert utmost efforts to have the European Commission (EC)'s "yellow card" against Vietnamese seafood exports removed as soon as possible, adding that localities must have plans to create livelihoods for fishermen and provide them with legal education for the benefit of themselves, as well as their responsibilities and obligations to the nation and the international community.
Participants shared their localities’ agriculture production orientations in 2024, stressing that localities will concentrate on defining pillar industries, re-organising specialised areas-based production, building large raw material areas to attract businesses’ investment and promoting production associated with environmental and ecological protection.
It was reported at the conference that the agricultural sector posted a GDP growth rate of 3.83% in 2023, a record for many years, contributing to the 5.05% growth of the national economy and affirming its important role as the pillar of the economy, ensuring food security and helping stabilise the macro economy.
The sector earned over 53 billion USD from exports with a record trade surplus of 12.07 billion USD.
The building of new-style rural areas has reaped significant outcomes, with 6,370 out of the total 8,167 communes nationwide, 270 district-level localities and five provinces meeting new-style rural area standards.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien affirmed that the agricultural sector will continue to promote the shift from agricultural production to an agricultural economy, from single-sector development to multi-sector cooperation and development, and from the development of farm produce supply chains to commodity chains.
The sector set a target to expand its GDP growth by 3-5% in 2024, and earn 54-55 billion USD from exporting agro-forestry-aquatic products, Tien said./.
