Vietnam, one of the world’s leading agricultural exporters, wants to bolster cooperation in the field with the Republic of Korea (RoK) who boasts strengths in applying advanced technology into cultivation and processing, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said on March 18.
At a workshop jointly held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in Hanoi, Hoan highlighted that both countries hold great potential to cooperate in developing agriculture, elaborating Vietnam has been famous for its rice, vegetables and fruits and aquatic products while the RoK has a modern agriculture with various kinds of seedlings.
Over the past time, they have worked together in technology transfer to branch out biofuel crops, high-quality vegetables, medicinal mushrooms and safe food production, as well as in trade promotion for products of both sides’ strengths, among others, he added.
He took the occasion to thank KOICA for its support to build the Vietnam – Korea cooperation vision in agriculture and rural development during the 2024-2030 period, saying the report has an important role to play in identifying potential cooperation areas, promoting comparative advantages of the two countries, and diversifying forms of cooperation and investment so as to enhance efficiency and ensure sustainability.
Meanwhile, KOICA President Chang Won Sam said that KOICA sees agriculture a key cooperation area between the two countries, and will support the collaboration under its mid-term and long-term strategies through various projects such as improving value chain, promoting market connectivity, and enhancing capacity for climate change response.
"The key words for the cooperation in the time ahead is digitalisation, climate change, innovation and sci-tech application in agriculture," he said.
According to Deputy Director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Anh Phong, the RoK is currently the fourth largest importer of Vietnamese agro-forestry-fishery products.
Since the Vietnam – Korea Free Trade Agreement took effect in 2015, Vietnam’s agricultural export to the East Asian country has been on strong surge, with average revenue of more than 2 billion USD a year during 2016-2023.
Meanwhile, Vietnam is also the 4th largest market of the RoK’s agro-forestry-fishery goods. Boosted by the free trade deal, RoK’s shipment of those products to Vietnam has grown at an average 6.2% per year.
Although the RoK is the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam, its capital funneled to the agricultural sector makes up only 0.17% of its total FDI in the country. Most of the investment has been poured into localities with preferential policies and holding favourable conditions in weather, land, infrastructure, labour force and material areas.
Phong said the RoK is the second largest ODA provider for Vietnam’s agriculture, adding the capital has contributed to improving productivity and quality; however, it accounts for only 3.36% of the total ODA the country has offered Vietnam./.
