Hanoi (VNA) – China wants tocooperate with Vietnam in agricultural development such as science-technology,research facilities, infrastructure construction, farm produce processing, andagricultural investment, a Chinese official has said.

Chinese Minister of Agriculture and RuralAffairs Han Changfu made the statement during talks with Vietnamese Minister ofAgriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong in Hanoi on October 14.

China hopes to cooperate with Vietnam inpreventing African swine fever (ASF) from crossing the border, he said, addingthat the two countries have shared experience in the field and will push aheadcoordination in the coming time.

Han noted that China has always been the biggestimporter of Vietnamese farm produce, and it will step up cooperation withVietnam to promote agricultural product trading.

Vietnam’s agricultural products could access tothe Chinese market through trade fairs and exhibitions where businesses couldset up partnerships, he added.

According to Cuong, Vietnam and China have manygroups of agricultural and aquatic products that could be supplemented eachother. 

Vietnam’s agricultural production capacity isextremely huge with about 50 million tonnes of food, 5 million tonnes of meat,8 million tonnes of aquatic products, 12 billion eggs, 1 million tonne of milk,and 20 million cubic metres of wood, Cuong said.

Particularly, Vietnam has big advantages inproducing coffee, pepper, rubber and cashew nuts, he said.

China is a big import market of Vietnamese farmproduce, Cuong said, adding that the bilateral cooperation potential remainshuge and the two sides should consider the possibility of supplying agriculturalproducts for the global chain.

He suggested the two nations enhance cooperationin science-technology to cope with climate change and natural disasters as wellas further develop the processing of farm produce.

The Vietnamese minister recommended the twosides to organise workshops to share experience in climate change response and dealwith plant diseases.

Cuong proposed the Chinese minister facilitatethe official export of some Vietnamese fruits to China such as durian and sweetpotato.

The two ministers agreed to assign specialisedagencies to prepare for the upcoming meeting in 2020, focusing on science-technology,connecting businesses in processing farm produce and developing theagricultural market, rural development, climate change adaptation, andcross-border disease control./.