On the afternoon of October 16, Politburo member, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the National Assembly delegation of Can Tho City had a meeting with voters, meeting with representatives of cadres, outstanding members of the Farmers' Association and owners of agricultural production and trading enterprises and cooperatives in Can Tho City before the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly.
At the meeting, the Can Tho City National Assembly Delegation informed about the content and program of the 8th Session and the implementation of policies on agricultural production and business in the city.
At the meeting with 200 voters, the National Assembly delegation received many opinions and recommendations revolving around the contents of supporting people on climate change, the project to support cooperatives on equipment and machinery... in the Project of 1 million hectares of high-quality rice; support for career conversion; request for social insurance support for freelance workers...
Voter Tran Cong Danh (Member of the Farmers' Association of Thoi Lai district) expressed his opinion that the Project of 1 million hectares of high-quality rice after nearly a year of implementation has achieved remarkable results such as: Increased productivity, increased profits, reduced emissions..., however, there are still some issues that farmers are concerned about but are not clear about.
Therefore, voter Danh asked, does the Government have specific policies or projects to invest in supporting cooperatives and farmers in machinery, equipment, technology, irrigation infrastructure, intra-field transportation, and logistics centers in specialized rice production areas?; as well as does the Government have specific mechanisms and policies on carbon credits to increase farmers' income?
Voter Danh also recommended having a policy to support preferential credit for farmers in terms of interest rates and interest collection time (depending on the season of each agricultural product); supporting and building a production and output chain to ensure that farmers feel secure in implementing the project on their own fields.
Voter Pham Van Thinh (Member of the Farmers' Association of Binh Thuy District) proposed attention, support, and direction of investment from the budget of ministries, central agencies, and the Government to implement the Can Tho City Climate Change Adaptation Project as soon as possible, in order to both ensure water security, reserve water for agricultural production, prevent saltwater intrusion, and prevent flooding and landslides when high tides combine with heavy rains...
Voter Thinh also recommended solutions to support people in areas at high risk of landslides to move to safe places or solutions to reinforce areas at risk of landslides, ensuring safety and stabilizing people's lives and serving the city's agricultural activities.
Speaking at the meeting with voters, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized the position, role and importance of Vietnam's agricultural sector, both ensuring food security and being an important source of income for tens of millions of farming households, while contributing to ensuring global food security.
The Prime Minister said that agricultural exports in the first 9 months of 2024 will reach about 50 billion USD and the whole year could reach about 60 billion USD. The Mekong Delta currently accounts for 90% of rice exports, 60-70% of fruit and seafood exports of the whole country.
It is necessary to remove two major bottlenecks in the region in terms of infrastructure and human resources for the Mekong Delta region to develop strongly, the Prime Minister said.
Regarding credit, the Prime Minister has directly directed and the banking sector has been implementing many credit programs for agriculture, farmers, and rural areas, including the Mekong Delta region.
Of which, the credit package for forestry and fisheries initially had a capital of only about 15,000 billion VND, but due to good disbursement, it has increased to 30,000 billion VND and is continuing to increase to about 40,000 billion VND. The Government has requested the State Bank to study and increase the scale of this credit package to about 50,000 - 60,000 billion VND.
To strongly develop the agricultural economy of the Mekong Delta, the Prime Minister noted that it is necessary to pay attention to the following contents: Planning raw material areas; building brands for high-quality segments; applying science and technology, innovation; mobilizing capital; developing markets with the participation of enterprises; linking large-scale production; developing digital infrastructure, irrigation, transportation, electricity, processing industry, etc. At the same time, it is imperative to mechanize, electrify, and digitally transform agriculture.
The Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to urgently implement the project of the Center for linking, producing, processing and consuming agricultural products in the Mekong Delta region in Can Tho City.
Regarding climate change response, the Prime Minister said that the Mekong Delta is severely affected by landslides, subsidence, drought and flooding; in 2023 alone, more than 4,000 billion VND was spent to respond to landslides in this area, while implementing many large projects such as Cai Lon - Cai Be irrigation...
For people affected by landslides, the Prime Minister pointed out that the spirit is that localities immediately use the budget to support; at the same time, he said that the whole country is joining hands with the determination to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses nationwide by the end of 2025, including people affected by landslides in the Mekong Delta.
