The delegates visit the booths displayed at the workshop

Immediately after the opening speech of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, delegates and experts  focused on assessing and analyzing the situation of agriculture, forestry and fishery production in Yen Bai province, identifying the comparative advantages of the locality, as well as the difficulties and challenges that need to be overcome in implementing the Agricultural Sector Restructuring in association with new rural construction.

Experts said that after 2 years of implementation of the agricultural restructuring plan for the period 2015-2020, Yen Bai province has achieved important initial results. Yen Bai has built a system of branch planning, regional planning, agricultural and forestry product planning, new rural planning in association with the promulgation of a set of mechanisms and policies to support the development of agriculture, forestry and fishery and to build  new rural areas radically, synchronously and comprehensively. Especially, the province has also built some specialty agricultural products with trademark and it has connection between production and processing and consumption. However, agriculture and rural areas of Yen Bai province still have many shortcomings, limits to the requirements of the period of industrialization - modernization of rural areas today.

Mr. Bui Quang Vinh - Former Minister of Planning and Investment

Mr. Bui Quang Vinh, former Minister of Planning and Investment, said that the key to get success in restructuring agricultural production is the market. To transform the perception, self-sufficient production habits into market-based production thinking is not a simple process. This change in perception not only occurs in a farmer's house, but also in the government officials. In addition, the restructuring of agricultural production in Yen Bai province should also pay attention to the research and selection of plants and animals suitable for each region; selecting a reasonable scale of production - this is an important issue for agricultural production in upland and mountainous areas; The province also needs to build a team of experts in each field of agriculture, with enthusiasm for the industry, profound knowledge in the field and knowledge of the market.

In addition, experts also said that Yen Bai's agricultural and rural economy has been developing on the basis of exploiting the potentials and strengths of each ecological sub-zone in line with the conditions of trade and the socio-economic status of each sub-region to create high-value, high-quality agricultural products.

The workshop got 17 comments by experts from central, local and provincial enterprises. Comments focused on analyzing, assessing the current situation, outstanding issues and potentials for development of agriculture, forestry and fishery production in Yen Bai province associated with building new rural areas.

Mr. Le Quoc Doanh, Vice Minister of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Le Quoc Doanh, Vice Minister of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that in the future, Yen Bai province should promote the advantageous plants and animals of the province. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will coordinate with the province to review each issue and help the province to develop projects to promote the potential strengths and introduce the main agricultural products to businesses, helping Yen Bai province well implementing the objectives of restructuring the agriculture associated with the construction of new rural.

Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Do Duc Duy spoke at the workshop

Speaking at the closing ceremony, Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Do Duc Duy emphasized that the issues discussed by the experts were important scientific and practical bases for the People's Committee of Yen Bai to comprehensive assess the current status of agricultural development and the new rural construction of the province;  further define the important objectives, tasks and solutions to be implemented in the immediate and long term in order to restructure Yen Bai's agricultural sector in a sustainable development, especially in the push stage of  industrialization, modernization and international integration are more and more widespread today.

The chairman of the provincial People's Committee asked immediately after the workshop, the departments, the People's Committees of districts, towns and cities to fully absorb the content of the workshop to advise the province in the direction to implement the objectives, tasks and solutions to restructure the agricultural sector in association with building new rural areas effectively.

The provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the provincial departments and branches to concretize the contents, tasks and solutions discussed and analyzed at the workshop to supplement the draft Resolution on restructuring the agricultural sector of the province in 2018-2020 to submit to the Provincial People's Council to adopt the resolution at the 10th Session held in July 2018.

He also asked the leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the departments, institutes and centers of the Ministry to continue to pay attention to, direct and support Yen Bai province to develop specific programs, plans, schemes and projects for the development of agriculture, rural areas and farmers in a sustainable, effective and comprehensive manner; Experts continue to pay attention, study and make a donation to Yen Bai to develop sustainable agro-forestry and fishery solutions; Enterprises continue to study and invest in agro-forestry production projects, especially those in organic agriculture, high technology agriculture, input support, in-depth processing and product consumption, especially the key products to create links in the value chain in agro-forestry and fishery production in the province.