News

Viet Nam needs to shift from a low middle-income to higher-income nation and avoid the middle-income trap by reforming policy content, structure and organisation, heard an international seminar that ended Friday in HCM City. Dr. Pham Thi Minh Uyen, from the Trade University, said based on the theory of the middle-income trap of Japanese economist Kenichi Ohno Viet Nam was now stuck in a low middle-income trap. Per capita income of Viet Nam surpassed $1,000 in 2008 (currently about $2,000) so the country is now classified as a low middle-income country, according to the criteria of the World Bank.

Vietnam and Australia will promote sci-technology cooperation, focusing mainly on healthcare, agriculture and the environment. Representatives from the two sides reached the consensus during the First Vietnam-Australia Joint Committee Meeting (JCM) on Cooperation in Science and Technology in Canberra, Australia on March 17. Accordingly, the two countries will boost links in applying biomedical technology in healthcare, disease diagnosis and treatment, while advancing the use of bio-technologies in agricultural production, farm produce processing, breeding, aquaculture, post-harvest preservation, and disease prevention in these sectors.

Drought and salt intrusion has worsened and damaged a large shrimp farming area in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, causing raw material shortages for export processing plants, reports Talk Vietnam. Shrimp farmers have suffered spreading mortalities in coastal provinces such as Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, Soc Trang and Kien Giang.

ANALYSIS - The National Fish and Seafood (NF&S) company is helping 824 integrated black tiger shrimp and mangrove farms in Vietnam's Ca Mau province achieve sustainable certification through an aquaculture improvement project. 

HCM CITY — The Prime Minister has approved a project for three new farm co-operative models for rice, aquatic products and fruit in the Cá»­u Long (Mekong) Delta by 2020. The project aims to promote connections between co-operatives and farmers, as well as improve the conditions of local people. It will be carried out in three phases in the delta’s 13 provinces and cities.

The Government has assigned the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ministry of Justice to prepare a report on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to submit to the National Assembly for approval at the NA session in mid-2016.

Farmers in several provinces of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta are struggling with severe salinization that is damaging a growing area of local fruit gardens. Tien Giang and Ben Tre Provinces are both labelled 'fruit kingdoms' because of their vast plantations in the Mekong Delta. The most famous types of fruit grown in the two locations include grapefruit, durian, mango, rambutan, jackfruit and mangosteen. All have been widely consumed domestically, as well as being exported all over the world.

HÀ NỘI – As many as 28 enterprises nation-wide have been selected to participate in 31 agricultural projects that apply a hi-tech models with low interest loans, the State Bank of Việt Nam has said. The amount of money allocated to help these enterprises to develop their models was nearly VNĐ7 trillion (US$339 million), it said. The programme was carried out under the Government’s Resolution No.14, which would as a trial provide loans to enterprises who had agricultural models that ran from production through processing to consumption, and applied high-tech methods to increase production.

This week, I am focusing the blog on Vietnamese food, a category of food and restaurants with which the Coast is blessed. If you have never been to a Vietnamese restaurant, just pick one, they are all good. Try the pho first, then move on and explore. I have never encountered anything on a Vietnamese menu that wasn’t glorious.

HỘI AN – The ancient town is hosting the first Há»™i An International Food Festival from March 14 to 20. Twelve international chefs from 12 countries -- Greece, Mauritius, Turkey and Sweden, besides the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Germany and Italy, as well as Russia, India, Sri Lanka and France, in addition to Việt Nam – are attending the festival. The city’s culture and sports centre said the food festival week would transform the city into a truly international culinary destination.

A recent report by the National Assembly economic committee addressed the government’s aim to reduce land used for growing rice in Vietnam over the next five years. The plan is mentioned in the evaluation report on the national scheme to adjust land use planning by 2020 and the last five-year plan for land use (2016-2020). The reduction was proposed by the Vietnamese government and approved by the assembly’s Committee for Economic Affairs. Presenting the evaluation report, Nguyen Van Giau, chairman of the committee, said the government recommended that by 2020 there should be 3.76 million hectares of land used for growing rice, a 270,000ha reduction from 2015.

Asia's farmers bear the brunt of harsh dry season, with no respite on immediate horizon. Amid Thailand's worst drought in decades, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha last week visited the north-eastern region grappling with parched farmlands and low water reserves. Parts of the country are so dry that roads lining empty canals have collapsed. National park officials have built ponds to sustain wildlife, while irrigation officials are pumping water from the dregs of a dam. Bangkok's administrators last week announced they were cutting short April's Songkran festival - which normally draws hundreds of thousands of tourists to one of the world's biggest water fights.

CJ Cooperation will remain running in the upcoming auction to become a strategic investor of Vietnam’s leading meat processor Vissan despite doubt over the South Korean firm’s ability to satisfy all selection criteria. The auction to choose strategic investors for the Vietnam Meat Industries Limited Company (Vissan) will be held on March 24, 2016, where the Vietnamese meat firm will sell a 14 per cent stake (11.3 million shares) to a maximum of three investors.
 

Vietnam’s fisheries are expected to have produced 827,000MT in the first two months of 2016, representing a 3.1% increase on the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The main gains come from capture with an increase of 3.7% to 476,000MT. Aquaculture comprises  351,000MT – a 2.3% rise from last year.

An ethnic minority village in the northern province of Lai Chau has recently gained popularity as a homestay spot due to its amazing array of ground orchids. Sin Suoi Ho Village is nestled in a namesake commune in Phong Tho District, at one end of Hoang Lien Son Range, which is one of the most spectacular mountain chains in the northwestern region, spanning the provinces of Lao Cai, Lai Chau and Yen Bai.

A seed company formed by Dutch agriculturist Simon Groot and Filipino trader Benito Domingo in 1982 has become a multi-cultural organization with over 4,000 employees who provide high-quality vegetable seeds to 30 million farmers across the globe. Initially called Hortigenetics Philippines Inc., the company was renamed East-West Seed Company Inc. as an evidence that a partnership between a European and Asian could succeed.  Its goal was to blend European style seedsmanship with Asian tropical vegetables.