After 13 years since joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), the local agricultural sector has recorded an array of tremendous achievements to clearly demonstrate its role as the fulcrum of the national economy, according to various economic experts.

The agricultural sector has maintained growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite being impacted by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Vietnamese agriculture sector achieved an impressive export turnover of US$41.25 billion, an annual rise of 1.6%, representing its highest figure ever.

Phung Thi Thu Huong, general director of Green Path Vietnam Company, believes that both the market opening and the slashing of tariff lines has contributed to creating a wealth of opportunities for many Vietnamese agro-forestry-fishery products. These factors have allowed them to achieve greater penetration into the global market, rising to the leading position in terms of output, in addition to export turnover.

After joining the WTO, the nation marked a new phase of moving towards full and deep international integration, thereby opening its doors to close international economic relations.

These served as the basic conditions for a breakthrough, with the country looking to achieve rapid growth based on boosting market expansion, increasing export turnover, whilst also attracting additional foreign investment.

Furthermore, the nation has enjoyed rapid development through engaging in the WTO, along with a host of free trade agreements (FTAs), both of which have served to boost export achievements, Huong states.

“By joining the WTO, from a nation that has to import rice and food, we have now become a powerful rice exporter. Notably over the past years, there have been drastic changes in the structure of crops and animals thanks to technological application in agriculture,” says economic expert Le Dang Doanh.

Despite these positives, experts recommend that the domestic agricultural sector should continue to devise proper guidelines aimed at maximising the benefits of international integration, whilst also striving to minimise adverse effects.

Therefore, economic experts urge the agricultural sector to restructure itself, develop both domestic and export markets, whilst fully focusing on advantageous industries in an effort to pool resources and invest in them.