Untie the knot, create new momentum for agricultural development and new rural construction

The conference was organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in person at Hanoi, combined with online meetings with the People's Committees of 63 provinces and centrally-run cities.

The conference was attended by Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan; Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son; Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat; leaders of a number of central ministries, departments and branches; leaders of centrally-run provinces and cities; leaders of associations, industries and typical enterprises.

At Hai Duong bridgehead, comrade Tran Van Quan, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and representatives of a number of departments, branches and localities attended.

Shifting agricultural production thinking to agricultural economic thinking

The conference assessed that in 2023, in difficult conditions with more challenges than opportunities and advantages, the Agriculture and Rural Development sector has strongly transformed from production thinking to agricultural economic thinking, from single-sector development to multi-sector cooperation and development; promoted multi-value integration in agricultural, forestry and fishery products; shifted from agricultural product supply chains to developing industry chains, thus achieving many positive results.

The GDP growth of the entire agricultural sector was 3.83%, the highest in recent years, contributing greatly to the 5.05% growth of the economy. Agriculture continued to affirm its important position and support the economy, firmly ensuring food security, ensuring one of the major balances of the economy and contributing to macroeconomic stability.

Total aquaculture export turnover remained high, over 53 billion USD; for the first time, Vietnam sold 10.3 million carbon credits, earning 1,200 billion VND; the highest trade surplus ever was 12.07 billion USD, up 43.7%. Developing the agricultural, forestry and fishery processing industry towards deep processing and high value. Improving the level of research, application and transfer of science and technology.

The Agriculture and Rural Development sector has successfully organized many major national and international events such as the International Rice Festival, the Craft Village Conservation and Development Festival, the ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Disaster Prevention and Control, etc., thereby helping to promote the image and brand of agricultural, forestry and fishery products domestically, regionally and internationally, and promote the consumption of agricultural products; focusing on developing, submitting for promulgation and effectively implementing many important projects, programs, mechanisms and policies for the development of the sector.

Notably, the work of building new rural areas and innovating production organization has been promoted. By the end of 2023, the whole country will have about 6,370/8,167 communes meeting new rural standards, of which: 1,612 communes will meet advanced new rural standards and 256 communes will meet model new rural standards. There are 270 district-level units recognized as completing tasks/meeting new rural standards. There are 20 provinces and cities with 100% of communes meeting new rural standards, of which 05 provinces have been recognized by the Prime Minister as completing the task of building new rural areas.

OCOP products have grown rapidly in quantity and quality, and developed their brands; to date, there are 11,056 OCOP products with 3 stars or more (an increase of 2,189 products) with 5,724 participating entities; there are nearly 20,500 agricultural cooperatives and 19,660 farms.

Discussing and analyzing the situation, the Agriculture and Rural Development sector strives to achieve a GDP growth rate of 3.0 - 3.5% in 2024. The total export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fishery products is about 54 - 55 billion USD. The rate of communes meeting new rural standards is 80%. The forest coverage rate remains stable at 42.02%. The rate of rural households using clean water according to standards is 58%. The rate of communes meeting environmental and food safety criteria in new rural construction is 82%.

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh acknowledged, commended and highly appreciated the efforts, attempts, results and achievements that the Agriculture and Rural Development sector has achieved; making important contributions to the overall comprehensive results of the whole country in 2023.

“The Agriculture and Rural Development sector has turned the situation from passive, confused, and surprised to proactive, timely, and creative in removing difficulties and obstacles, overcoming challenges, and achieving high results. Shifting from defense and resistance to attack, some sectors have set new records. 2023 is a year of good harvest and good prices for the Agriculture and Rural Development sector; achieving higher results than in 2022,” the Prime Minister emphasized.

The Prime Minister said that the Agriculture and Rural Development sector has an important position and role in the country's development process, is a national advantage, a pillar of the economy; farmers and rural areas have a strategic position in the cause of industrialization, modernization, construction and protection of the Fatherland, are the basis and important force for socio-economic development, maintaining political stability, ensuring security and defense, preserving and promoting national cultural identity, and protecting the country's ecological environment.

Frankly acknowledge the shortcomings and limitations; point out the lessons learned on innovation of thinking, solidarity, democracy, promoting the leadership role of the Party, management of the State, coordination in the implementation process, and the support and participation of the people; basically agree with the main goals of the Agriculture and Rural Development sector in 2024, but the Prime Minister requested to set higher goals, in which, striving to achieve a GDP growth rate of the whole sector in 2024 of 3.5 - 4%, total export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery products reaching 55 billion USD or more.

In the coming time, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested the Agriculture and Rural Development sector to inherit and promote the achievements; implement the Resolutions of the Party Central Committee, the National Assembly, and the Government on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas, and implement the Government's 2024 motto of "Discipline, responsibility, proactiveness, timelyness, accelerated innovation, and sustainable efficiency".

Removing bottlenecks, creating new momentum for agricultural development and new rural construction

The Prime Minister requested the entire sector to truly unite, make efforts, and be determined to act with the highest level of flexibility and effectiveness to adapt to the new context and situation; overcome all difficulties and challenges, seize new opportunities and fortunes in the development of the agricultural sector; and proactively and actively integrate into the international community comprehensively, deeply, practically and effectively.

“The Agriculture and Rural Development sector must focus on innovation; green economy, digital economy, knowledge economy, circular economy, sharing economy. Consider this as a new driving force to build “ecological agriculture, modern countryside, civilized farmers”; this is an objective and correct requirement, prioritizing resources for development. The immediate task is to build a database for the Agriculture and Rural Development sector; build a carbon market,” the Prime Minister pointed out.

The Prime Minister requested to continue focusing on perfecting institutions, building mechanisms, policies, strategies, and plans, especially the three national sectoral plans on forestry development, aquatic resources protection, and fishing port systems and storm shelters for fishing vessels. Promote socialization, strongly decentralize to localities, along with resource allocation, strengthen inspection and supervision during implementation; simplify administrative procedures, investment and business procedures in the agricultural sector.

“The industry must have specific solutions to remove policy bottlenecks, create favorable conditions for people and businesses to access land and credit, and create new momentum for the development of commodity agriculture and new rural construction,” the Prime Minister noted.

The Head of the Government directed the Agriculture and Rural Development sector to synchronously and effectively implement programs, projects, tasks to promote agricultural restructuring according to 3 key product groups, according to industries and fields and restructuring production by region; effectively implement the One Commune One Product (OCOP) Program, the Project "Sustainable development of 1 million hectares of high-quality and low-emission rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta by 2030". Reorganize production, develop appropriate and effective forms of production organization associated with the digital transformation process, digital economy; develop the cooperative system, associated with restructuring the Agriculture and Rural Development sector.

The Agriculture and Rural Development sector must promote mechanization and application of science and technology, high technology, intelligence, and automation in agricultural production; focus on selection and breeding; develop industry serving agriculture, processing industry, and preservation of agricultural products, increase the proportion of deep processing to increase the added value of products; develop production clusters associated with raw material areas, and forms of cooperation in production and processing connected to domestic and international consumption systems.

The Prime Minister noted that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and relevant ministries and sectors must do a good job of forecasting supply and demand, providing information on the market situation, connecting producers with consumers, taking advantage of free trade agreements, especially EVFTA and CPTPP, to restructure export markets, reduce dependence on certain markets, remove barriers to penetrate new markets, and at the same time focus on the domestic market, have a strategy to bring goods from rural areas to urban areas, and build a brand for Vietnamese agricultural products.

The Prime Minister directed the development of the marine economy, promoting marine aquaculture and sustainable seafood exploitation; focusing on thoroughly resolving the recommendations of the European Commission (EC) to remove the "Yellow Card" in 2024, preventing and strictly handling illegal fishing vessels abroad; researching and proposing the establishment of a Fisheries Infrastructure Development Fund to gather and mobilize resources for investment in fisheries infrastructure development. Strengthening the management, protection and development of forests, especially natural forests and protective forests; completing the 2024 plan to implement the Project "Planting 1 billion trees in the period of 2021 - 2025".

Effectively implement the National Target Program on New Rural Development; along with creating conditions for rural economic development, creating conditions to improve people's lives and incomes, and preserving and promoting the cultural identity of each region, associated with urbanization, avoiding following trends, formalities, and waste. In addition, promote international integration and cooperation to develop agriculture and rural areas, while proactively fighting to protect the rights and interests of the nation, and protect Vietnamese agricultural products.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh believes that with the tradition of innovation, creativity and high determination at the central and local levels, the Agriculture and Rural Development sector will renew old motivations, supplement new motivations, continue to develop further, successfully implement the set goals, achieve higher results in 2024 than in 2023; farmers will become increasingly richer and more civilized; the countryside will become increasingly modern, prosperous, friendly and worth living; contributing to building an increasingly powerful and prosperous country, and people will become increasingly happy and prosperous.