Ninh Binh works to attract foreign investment to agriculture

Great potential

Situated in the southern part of the Red River Delta, Ninh Binh has diverse terrains, including mountain, plain and sea, bringing a lot of advantages to the province to boost socio-economic development in general and agricultural development in particular.

There are dozens of local farm produce that have great economical values such as camellia cucphuongensis, sticky rice, wild chicken, and Trau fish. In particular, in the past few years, the province has paid due attention to completing infrastructure serving agricultural production and preventing natural disasters. Growing areas have been zoned off.

However, the local agriculture sector has failed to achieve breakthrough growth.

Agricultural production is in small scale and scattered; the application of scientific and technological advances, mechanisation of agriculture are still restricted while farm products are mainly unprocessed, and the consumption market is quite unstable. 

These facts have caused great difficulties for the province to export agricultural products. Hence, it is necessary for Ninh Binh to restructure the agriculture sector by paying more heed to apply modern techniques and technologies. 

Vu Nam Tien, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said enterprises have played an important role in increasing values and changing the mindset and production method. However, Ninh Binh still finds hard to attracts investment in the sector. 

Currently, the department has been carrying out a series of measures to remove difficulties and attract investment, especially FDI. It has simplified administrative procedures; prepared cleared land plots for projects; applied consistent and transparent policies related to procedures, methods of land lease and coordination linkages in production between investors and local cooperatives and farmers.

The sector also aims to attract big investors who have great potential in terms of capital, technology and consumption market. It will give priority to projects that have high quality and value, apply scientific-technological advances, clean technologies, and create more jobs for local people.

Positive signals 

After moves to attract investment, Ninh Binh has recently received a number of investors from Japan, the Republic of Korea and other countries to explore investment opportunities in the province.

In February 2023, a business delegation from the RoK paid a working visit to Ninh Binh to seek opportunities for hi-tech agriculture projects.

Yamamoto Takashi, CEO of JVC Hightech Energy Co. Ltd., expressed  his wish to cooperate with Ninh Binh in producing agricultural products such as sturgeon, shrimp, eel, and ginseng.

Apart from investing into production, JVC Hightech Energy will provide training courses for local labourers to access hi-tech production technologies in a bid to develop the province's agriculture sector, he added.

On the first days of 2023, Ninh  Binh cooperated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Korea Forest Service (KFS) to launch an afforestation drive in Con Noi Alluvial ground in Kim Son district, as part of the Mangrove Restoration and Sustainable Management Project in the Red River Delta funded by the RoK Government.

The project will plant 240 hectares of new mangroves and grow additional trees for 20 other hectares. Moreover, the project would support the building of sustainable mangrove management and eco-tourism development methods.

The project in Ninh Binh is expected to cost 50 billion VND.

KFS Deputy Minister Sang-seop Lim said the project would help Ninh Binh to recover its mangrove area, adding that the agency would transfer extensive aquaculture technique, thus producing products with high values for export and improving livelihoods for local residents.

Jang Eun-Sook, President of the Korean Association in Vietnam, informed that in the coming time, it will encourage Korean firms and people to make tours of the mangrove forest in an attempt to promote the efficiency of the project.

With these positive signs, it is hoped that Ninh Binh's agriculture sector will attract more investment, produce more qualified farm products, and join global value chains, thus creating breakthrough development steps for the sector in the coming time.

Translated by Nguyen Thuy