A leader of the Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute (CCRRI) gives a bouquet to Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio (L).(Photo: VNA)

Welcoming the President, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Ngoc He expressed his hope that the President will create favourable conditions for Vietnamese firms, including those in Can Tho, to trade with their Sierra Leonean peers.

Can Tho always facilitates foreign-invested businesses' investment activities, he stated.

At the CCRRI, President Julius Maada Bio expressed his nation's desire to strengthen agricultural cooperation with Viet Nam; to be supported in the transfer of scientific advances in rice cultivation; and to hear experience in solving problems regarding private resource mobilisation for production, irrigation, and mechanisation in rice production.

Established in 1977, the 360-ha institute uses 60 ha for experimental work and 220 ha for rice seed production. To date, it has registered to circulate 180 rice varieties in an area that makes up nearly 75 percent of the total 4.2 million hectares of rice paddies in the delta.

On the same day, the Sierra Leonean delegation toured the tra fish (pangasius) processing line of Nam Viet Group’s An Do Duong seafood processing factory at the Thot Not Industrial Park.