Agricultural restructuring will focus on the two breakthroughs ofscientific-technological application and re-organisation of production,according to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat.

Appearing at a hearing held by the NationalAssembly’s Economic Committee on December 31, the minister reported thathis ministry is implementing 12 projects to carry out restructuring inthe fields of cultivation, animal husbandry, forestry, fishery,agro-forestry-seafood processing and irrigation.

Major solutions include reforming mechanisms and policies; restructuringpublic investment; developing research and the transfer oftechnologies; re-organising production activity; training labourers; andimproving capacity and efficiency of state management.

According to the minister, restructuring efforts have contributedgreatly to the agricultural sector’s performance in 2014, with a growthrate of 3.9 percent in production value, higher than the set target of3.27 percent. The sector earned an estimated 30.86 billion USD fromexports, up 11.2 percent from last year, while the ratio of added valuein the sector’s production value increased from 64.7 percent in 2013 to67.8 percent.

Regarding preparations for thesector’s international integration, particularly when the ASEAN EconomicCommunity is formed in 2015, Phat said the ministry will focus ondeveloping products in which the country has the upper hand.

Next year, the ministry will work with research institutes ondeveloping for-export rice varieties and expanding the model oflarge-scale fields, towards building the country’s rice brand name.

The minister also answered questions on policies to develop fisheriesand issues related to farmers’ income and credit for forestry./.