Officials of the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho had a meeting with a delegation of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on December 4 to discuss agricultural cooperation programmes and promote Japanese investment in the city.

The policy and agricultural development advisory group of JICA presented the results of a survey in Can Tho and proposed solutions to enhance ties in developing local food value chains.

Yuichi Fukasaka, head of the advisory group, noted some Japanese firms operating in the city said they are facing problems related to land and labour. 

The Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have issued many policies to promote the sale of farm produce. However, localities are the ones implementing these policies. Meanwhile, each locality has different conditions and their own ways to realise the policies, which has caused difficulties to achieve the policies’ objectives, he pointed out.

The JICA expert also mentioned the surveyed localities’ limited access to finance, suggesting that they should actively access financial sources from the private sector.

For his part, Vice Chairman of the Can Tho municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Dung said the city pays great attention to promoting investment and cooperation in agriculture, adding that it has continually created a favourable investment environment for foreign businesses, including those from Japan.

At the meeting, the two sides reviewed agricultural cooperation between Vietnam and Japan from 2015 to 2019 and assessed the agriculture and food value chain programmes JICA has carried out to bolster Japanese investment in the country, including Can Tho. 

They also looked into challenges facing and demand of cooperatives and businesses, especially small- and medium-sized ones, in agriculture and food value chain so as to set up cooperation directions.