Myanmar encourages Vietnam’s investment in agriculture
By Chien Thang - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – At the talk with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Naypyidaw on Wednesday, Myanmar’s President Thein Sein encouraged Vietnamese enterprises to invest in the country’s agricultural sector, including rice, rubber and aquaculture cultivation.
The president said Myanmar would support investments in new industrial parks, traffic infrastructure, hotels, mineral mining, and offshore gas exploitation, according to Vietnam News Agency.
Earlier, visiting Prime Minister Dung and President Thein Sein had paid a field trip to the experimental rice field deployed by two Vietnamese firms in the capital city Naypyidaw of Myanmar. The rice field belongs to the 100-hectare farming area of various plant varieties, under the management of Myanmar’s Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation with the assistance of eight Vietnamese experts.
Eleven varieties of Vietnamese rice, along with corn, vegetables and fruit, are under trial cultivation in this area before mass cultivation in the entire Myanmar.
U Kyaw Win, director-general of the agriculture ministry, said Myanmar hoped to learn experiences from and promote cooperation with Vietnam in production of rice seed, rice, sugarcane, cotton and other crops.
At the talk, the two leaders agreed to assign related ministers to discuss and develop cooperation projects in the potential fields, such as agriculture, aquaculture farming and processing, industrial park development in Myanmar as well as investment in a route linking Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.
In addition, Prime Minister Dung and President Thein Sein emphasized their determination to boost the two-way trade turnover to US$500 million by 2015. The two sides also agreed on joining forces with related nations in sustainable exploitation of the Mekong River water sources.
After the talk, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and President Thein Sein witnessed the signing ceremony of a memorandum of cooperation in agriculture and rural development between the two sides’ agriculture ministries.
Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) also signed an agreement to provide a gratis aid worth US$250,000 to Myanmar’s agriculture ministry for technology cooperation and agricultural training.
On this occasion, Myanmar Investment Commission granted investment certificates in medicine production and five-star hotel construction for Vietnamese enterprises.