Mr. Hoang Quang Phong, Vice President of VCCI, speaks at the Forum.

Delivering the opening speech to the “Green Agricultural Development Investment Forum 2024” recently organized by the Business Forum Magazine in coordination with relevant agencies, VCCI Vice President Hoang Quang Phong said: Developing green agriculture and green economy is a vital trend and a mandatory requirement in commercial production and international integration in the coming period. At the COP26 Conference (in December 2021), Vietnam strongly committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and reducing global methane emissions by 2030 compared to 2010. At the United Nations Food and Agriculture Summit (in July 2023), Vietnam also announced a goal of becoming a country that produces and supplies food and foodstuffs transparently, responsibly, sustainably and meets food security and export requirements.

Grasping the global development trend of green agriculture and green economy, the Prime Minister also issued Decision 150/QD-TTg dated January 28, 2022 on approval of the Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Strategy for the 2021 - 2030 period, with a vision to 2050. The strategy aims to build a commodity-producing agriculture; develop a modern agriculture, based on local advantages, with the highest productivity, quality, efficiency, sustainability and competitiveness in the region and the world; and firmly ensure national food security. Following policies on implementation of the strategy have created mechanisms and legal corridors to encourage, support and motivate businesses to promote investment, production and trading of safe agricultural products and foods while fostering and developing production and consumption cooperation and linkage of agricultural products along the agricultural product value chain to increase the value, from input and service supply to production, preliminary processing or full processing associated with agricultural product consumption.

Without doubt, green, clean, safe and sustainable agricultural production solutions throughout production processes have been moving towards the transition to comprehensive, inclusive, ecological green agricultural development in response to the world market trend, achieving the goal of helping mitigate climate change impacts and gradually affirming the new face of green agricultural development investment in the era of green economy and sustainable ESC practices.

However, besides the great opportunities that have been opened up, there are still many challenges and bottlenecks in the effort to form a green, smart agricultural production chain, said Phong. It is required how to effectively apply the achievements of the Industrial Revolution 5.0 in the most suitable way to Vietnam's agriculture while promoting inclusive transformation, green development and low emissions. "In that context, removing bottlenecks and obstacles, with the effort of businesses, investors, farmers and authorities, providing resources and share knowledge will be of great significance to further boost investment value, linkage and close cooperation for a green, circular, effective and sustainable agricultural ecosystem", he emphasized.

Sharing the same view, authorities, experts and businesses at the forum also discussed current "hot" issues, recommended and proposed fundamental solutions for green agricultural development, and specially emphasized that, to have investment capital for green growth, the agricultural sector needs to focus on mobilizing social resources, particularly from businesses, to execute green growth goals. It is necessary to renew thinking and awareness, and actively promote green economic development, green growth and green consumption. At the same time, it is necessary to focus on strengthening international cooperation to call for financial support and technology transfer to make Vietnamese agriculture a model for green, low-carbon, food-safety agricultural development, and enhance competitiveness in the global agricultural chain.

The enthusiastic participation by VCCI Vice President Hoang Quang Phong and attendants to the forum showed that agriculture has great development potential in Vietnam. However, to truly attract businesses into this field, there is a need for changing awareness and methods, from authorities to farmers, with the participation of businesses themselves. In particular, it is crucial to focus on attracting investment capital for development of circular agriculture, green agriculture towards sustainable green values.

“Vietnam's agriculture has much room for development. Our task is to capture and utilize this strength to enable farmers to truly benefit from their production results. Businesses also benefit from producing, exporting and trading agricultural products and this is an advantage that must be taken into account in national economic competitiveness. In short, our top priority now is to foster the development of green economy in agriculture so as to leverage and promote Vietnamese agriculture to make true breakthroughs to become a key economic sector, ensure food security and function as a strong pillar of the economy,”  Phong recommended.