A forum on high-tech agricultural cooperation between Vietnam and Japan took place in Ho Chi Minh City on June 8.

The event, the second of its kind this year, aimed at connecting southern enterprises with their Japanese peers and helping Vietnamese high-tech farming centres promote their products and indicate their collaboration needs.
 

Tu Minh Thien, deputy head of the management board of HCM City's High-Tech Agricultural Park, said constructive relations between the two countries have brought mutual benefits for their people, with Vietnam seeing more opportunities to export goods to Japan.

Japan is a demanding market with strict requirements on food safety and quality, which is a challenge to Vietnamese firms, he added.

Vietnam has zoned off 29 high-tech industrial parks in 12 provinces and cities, seven of which have been operational in cultivation, aquaculture and animal husbandry. The Vietnamese Government has also issued various incentives and support policies targeting hi-tech agriculture, with the latest being a credit package worth 100 trillion VND (4.4 billion USD).

Representatives of Vietnamese high-tech agricultural parks said they hoped for not only Japanese investment but also cooperation in human resources training, laboratory research and technological transfer.

Participating Japanese firms stressed their willingness towards the cooperation.

They asked the Vietnamese Government to offer more incentives and help them remove barriers when investing in the local high-tech farming, particularly land issues.

As part of the forum, a pact was signed among the management board of the HCM City High-Tech Agricultural Park, Fuji Consulting Japan Co. Ltd, and Nakashima Bussan Co. Ltd. Under the deal, they will pilot the fine-bubble water treatment system and the use of bio-microorganisms in aquaculture.