Decision No. 899/QD-TTg dated 2013 approving the Scheme "Reorganizing the agricultural sector towards increasing added value and sustainable development" issued by the Government

 Pursuant to …;

APPROVAL OF THE RESTRUCTURING PROGRAM FOR THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN THE DIRECTION OF INCREASING VALUE ADDED AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

PRIME MINISTER

Based on the Law on the Organization of the Government dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to Resolution No. 26-NQ/TW dated August 5, 2008 of the 7th Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Tenure X, on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas;

Pursuant to Resolution No. 24/2010/NQ-CP dated October 24, 2008 of the Government promulgating the Action Program to implement Resolution No. 26-NQ/TW dated August 5, 2008;

Pursuant to Resolution No. 06/NQ-CP dated March 7, 2012 of the Government promulgating the Action Program of the Government for the tenure 2011-2016;

Pursuant to Resolution No. 10/NQ-CP dated April 24, 2012 of the Government promulgating the Action Program to implement the Strategy for Socio-Economic Development 2011-2020 and the orientation and tasks for national development over the period 2011-2015;

Considering the proposal of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development,

DECISION:

Article 1. Approves the Restructuring Program "Restructuring the agricultural sector towards increasing value added and sustainable development" (hereinafter referred to as the Program) with the main contents as follows:

I. OBJECTIVES AND VIEWS

1. Objectives

a) Maintain growth, improve efficiency and competitiveness through increased productivity, quality, and value added; better meet domestic consumer needs and promote exports. Strive to achieve an average annual GDP growth rate of 2.6% - 3.0% during the period 2011-2015, and 3.5% - 4.0% during the period 2016-2020;

b) Increase income and improve living standards for rural residents, ensure food security (including nutritional security) both in the short term and long term, contribute to reducing poverty. By 2020, household income in rural areas will increase by 2.5 times compared to 2008; the number of communes reaching new rural criteria will be 20% in 2015 and 50% in 2020;

c) Strengthen natural resource management, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other negative impacts on the environment, exploit environmental benefits, enhance risk management capabilities, proactively prevent and mitigate natural disasters, raise the national forest coverage ratio to 42% - 43% in 2015 and 45% in 2020, contributing to implementing the National Green Growth Strategy.

2. Views on restructuring

a) Agricultural restructuring is a component of overall economic restructuring, consistent with the country's strategy and socio-economic development plans; linked with economic and social development and environmental protection to ensure sustainable development; sustainable development is both a process and a goal of the industry;

b) Implement agricultural restructuring according to market mechanisms while ensuring basic welfare goals for farmers and consumers; shift from extensive development focusing on quantity to improving quality and efficiency demonstrated by value and profit; at the same time, pay attention to meeting social requirements;

c) The State plays a supportive role, creating a favorable environment for the activities of all economic sectors; focus on supporting research, development, and technology transfer, developing markets, infrastructure serving production and daily life, providing information and services;

d) Enhance the participation of all economic and social components from central to local levels in the restructuring process; promote the development of public-private partnerships (PPP) and co-management mechanisms, leveraging the role of community organizations. Farmers and businesses directly invest in modernizing production processes, technologies, and equipment to improve business efficiency and more effectively utilize resources;

đ) Restructuring is a complex, difficult, and long-term process that requires regular evaluation, summarization, and learning experiences to adjust appropriately based on building a monitoring, evaluation, and feedback information system from relevant parties.

II. ORIENTATION AND CONTENT

1. General direction

a) On Economy

- Focus on exploiting and utilizing the advantages of tropical agriculture; build and develop large-scale specialized zones in the form of farms, ranches, high-tech agricultural zones, meeting international standards for food safety, connecting agricultural production with processing, preservation, consumption, and global value chains for products with competitive advantages in the world market: coffee, rubber, rice, snakehead fish, shrimp, pepper, cashew nuts, other seafood, tropical fruits, wood products... At the same time, maintain diverse scales and methods of production suitable for the actual conditions of each region for products and groups of products with large domestic demand but moderate competitiveness such as livestock products, sugarcane...

- Improve institutional frameworks for market-oriented agricultural development; innovate and develop management systems and organizational structures for production and business.

b) On Society

- Increase income for agricultural producers based on creating conditions for all economic components, especially poor and near-poor households in rural areas, people in remote and disadvantaged areas, those with unfavorable land and ecological conditions, ethnic minorities, and women to participate in agricultural growth through poverty reduction support, production and income maintenance support, enhancing access to non-agricultural labor markets, diversifying livelihoods for rural residents, and properly addressing food security and nutritional security issues.

- Develop agriculture towards achieving priority welfare goals for farmers and consumers.

c) On Environment

- Minimize adverse environmental impacts from the exploitation of resources for agricultural, forestry, and aquatic production; increase the efficiency of resource management and utilization (land, water, marine resources, forests); carefully consider the feedback effects and potential conflicts between resource extraction options; strengthen the application of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; manage and use chemicals, pesticides, livestock waste, crop residues, industrial processing, and village industry waste safely and effectively; conserve biodiversity.

- Encourage the application of environmental standards accompanied by strict monitoring mechanisms to promote the development of green agricultural supply chains.

2. Restructuring in specific sectors

The goal of sustainable development must be consistently applied throughout the restructuring of each sector across all three aspects of "economy", "society", and "environment".

a) Crop production

- Restructure crop production towards large-scale, concentrated production linked with preservation, processing, and consumption through value chains based on leveraging product advantages and regional strengths. Vigorously apply science and technology, particularly high-tech, to increase productivity, quality, reduce costs, and adapt to climate change. Focus investment on developing the processing industry, especially deep processing and post-harvest preservation, aiming to reduce post-harvest losses and enhance product value.

- Maintain and flexibly utilize 3.8 million hectares of rice cultivation land to ensure food security and improve land use efficiency, with rice production reaching over 45 million tons by 2020; concentrate on improving rice varieties to boost productivity and quality; continue expanding corn planting area to achieve more than 8.5 million tons to provide raw materials for industrial animal feed production, reducing imports.

- Stabilize coffee planting area at approximately 500 thousand hectares, mainly in the Northwest, Southeast, Central Coast, and Northwest regions; develop and implement a replanting program for 150 thousand hectares of old, low-yielding coffee trees; expand rubber planting area to 800 thousand hectares, mainly in the Southeast and Northwest regions; stabilize cashew planting area at about 400 thousand hectares in key regions such as the Southeast, Northwest, and South Central Coast; maintain pepper planting area at around 50 thousand hectares in the Southeast and Northwest regions; develop tea planting area up to about 140 thousand hectares primarily in the Northern Midland and Mountainous Region and Lam Dong.

- Concentrate on producing high-tech, large-scale vegetables, flowers, and fruits in areas with advantages; simultaneously encourage the development of household gardens.

- Reorganize the production, procurement, processing, and consumption systems; encourage businesses to link and sign production and consumption contracts with farmers; develop voluntary farmer groups and production linkages along value chains.

- Support training, extension services, and advisory services to improve farming techniques, care, and harvesting for farmers; expand agricultural insurance support; increase farmers' income through equal profit sharing between farmers, processing facilities, and exporting businesses.

- Apply sustainable intensive farming measures, comply with environmental regulations regarding fertilizer and chemical usage and agricultural waste treatment; adopt water-saving irrigation technologies.

b) Livestock breeding

- Gradually shift from small-scale, scattered livestock breeding to concentrated breeding in farms and ranches; gradually move livestock breeding from densely populated areas (delta) to sparsely populated areas (midlands, mountains), forming livestock zones far from cities and residential areas; adjust the structure towards increasing the proportion of poultry in livestock herds; encourage the application of high-tech, closed-loop production organization, or linkage among stages in the value chain from breeding, feeding, to processing to enhance productivity, cut costs, and increase efficiency and added value.

- Support household livestock breeding in an industrial form, applying appropriate techniques and technology to create livelihood opportunities for farmers while limiting diseases, minimizing environmental pollution, ensuring food safety, and enhancing the competitiveness of the livestock industry.

- Effectively monitor and control diseases; strengthen veterinary services; strictly regulate the management and use of veterinary drugs; apply food safety standards along the value chain, diversify processed products; improve feed utilization efficiency.

- Implement a system to manage and control soil and water pollution risks from livestock waste and develop renewable energy sources from livestock by-products; manage environmentally safe breeding zones.

c) Aquaculture

- Focus on intensive farming of main aquaculture species (mud crab, whiteleg shrimp, tra fish, tilapia, mollusks); continue diversifying species and farming methods to exploit market opportunities; encourage industrial farming, applying high-tech, good aquaculture practices (GAP) meeting international standards; prioritize investment in infrastructure for intensive farming in the Mekong Delta and coastal areas of Central Vietnam.

- Gradually reduce and stabilize nearshore fisheries production; manage fishing according to size; encourage the development of co-management models for nearshore resources to enhance recovery capacity and sustainability of fisheries resources; shift from small vessel nearshore fishing to large vessel offshore and distant-water fishing; adjust target species, seasons, and fishing grounds towards higher economic value and better market demand; develop maritime fisheries inspection forces.

- Invest in modern equipment and technology in processing to increase product value; restructure frozen processed products towards reducing primary processed products and increasing ready-to-eat products with high added value; expand the application of food safety management systems (ISO, HACCP, GMP, SSOP); research and invest in post-harvest preservation technology to reduce loss rates and export high-value live aquatic products.

- Establish mechanisms to support poor people's participation in value chains and agricultural insurance programs; encourage the application of social control standards in aquaculture and processing; develop freshwater aquaculture in mountainous areas to alleviate poverty and create sustainable livelihoods.

- Establish marine and inland conservation areas; improve fisheries data systems, analyze fish sources, stock levels, and monitor fishing intensity; strengthen administrative management measures for activities that negatively impact the environment; enhance protection of resources and the environment.

d) Forestry

- Develop forestry to increase economic value of the sector and enhance its capacity and effectiveness in environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, and effective response to climate change, contributing to poverty reduction and improving livelihoods for mountain residents, especially ethnic minority groups; this is the sustainable direction for the forestry sector in the coming period. Strive to achieve a sectoral economic structure of 25% value of forest environmental services, 25% value of forest production, and 50% value of wood processing and other forest products by 2020.

- Focus on developing and increasing the proportion of economic forests in the total forest area of the country, develop plantation production into a significant economic sector providing employment and increasing income for forest workers; improve livelihoods for ethnic minority communities and other beneficiaries through forest environmental service fees; continue implementing land allocation and forest transfer to local people. Enhance the economic efficiency of planted forests towards multifunctional forestry development, shift product structure from harvesting immature timber for wood chips export to harvesting mature timber to create concentrated raw material regions, supply wood for wood product export industry, gradually reduce wood raw material imports.

- Manage and use sustainably natural forest areas, replace less efficient areas with high-yield planted forests meeting sustainability criteria; adjust tree species structure in protective forests towards multi-purpose trees to increase income for forest workers.

- Develop and strengthen management of special ecosystems, protect gene pools, ensure biodiversity, and provide sustainable models for biodiversity conservation and environmental services (conservation funds, ecological compensation models, carbon finance); encourage the development of integrated livestock farming, fruit cultivation, and non-timber forest product production with forest planting and sustainable forest harvesting to increase income; expand the application of international certification standards in forest management.

đ) Salt Production

Expand modern industrial salt production areas on a large scale; develop irrigation systems serving salt production; apply mechanization and automation in processing to increase salt productivity and quality. By 2020, the national salt output will reach about 1.35 million tons, of which industrial salt accounts for 70%, and traditional salt accounts for 30%.

e) Development of Processing Industry and Rural Crafts

- Prioritize investment in developing refined and deep processing industries, technological innovation, equipment integration with organizational production and marketing measures to increase added value of agricultural, forestry, and aquatic products; strive for each commodity to achieve at least a 20% increase in added value within ten years.

- Plan rural craft village development with reasonable scale, product structure, and technological level sufficient to compete, suitable for conditions of each region and locality; link economic activities of craft villages with tourism services and preservation and development of traditional culture. Promote technology transfer and application of scientific and technological progress in production in craft villages; modernize waste treatment technology, control and reduce environmental pollution in craft villages; require all economic sectors investing in processing of agricultural, forestry, and aquatic products and rural crafts to invest in a complete system for wastewater, solid waste, and exhaust gas treatment, and environmental protection.

3. Vigorously implement the new countryside construction program

- Along with production development, continue prioritizing investment in rural infrastructure, connecting villages to towns, district centers, provincial cities. Develop small urban areas and residential clusters with living arrangements similar to those in urban areas.

- Support, concentrate, and synchronize material and equipment for vocational training, training programs, teacher and management cadre training for vocational schools; expand vocational training forms linked with new technology transfer, new production techniques and processes for farmers; replicate good models in vocational training for rural labor, vocational training for craft villages, specialized production areas, creating job opportunities for rural labor.

- Upgrade and develop both the scale and quality of primary healthcare services, especially at the county level; promote and convince people to restore confidence in the quality of primary healthcare services through tangible results.

- Preserve, renovate, and promote cultural heritage values; transform craft villages with favorable conditions into tourist attractions, connect tourism routes within regions and between adjacent regions.

- Address environmental pollution caused by traditional manual production methods and low technology in craft villages; effectively handle environmental pollution from waste generated by agricultural and livestock activities in rural areas.

- Strengthen security and public order in rural areas.

III. MAJOR SOLUTIONS

1. Improve planning quality, review, align strategies with planning, plan formulation, and management supervision to enhance the effectiveness of state management over planning

- Review, adjust, and supplement agricultural production planning (crops, livestock) based on leveraging product advantages and regional advantages; ensure effective implementation of green development strategies and effective responses to climate change; eliminate suspended projects, improve resource utilization efficiency.

- Review, reassess forest planning, maintain reasonably the area of upstream forests and special-use forests, innovate management mechanisms and organization to enhance autonomy for households and businesses, convert the remaining forest areas to concentrated raw material forest zones, develop and exploit forests effectively and sustainably, increase income and living standards of forestry workers.

- Review, plan, and manage safe environmental aquaculture zones and food safety zones; investigate fishing grounds, analyze sources, stock volumes of marine products, and monitor fishing levels, protect resources and the environment.

- Strengthen inspection and supervision of planning implementation, especially the integration between regional planning and sectoral, field-specific planning, overall socio-economic development planning; ensure transparency in all types of planning.

2. Encourage and attract private investment

- The State supports economic sectors investing in agriculture and rural areas; gradually transfer some public service provision to private entities and social organizations; increase the proportion of investment capital from non-state economic sectors in total agricultural investment.

- The State is responsible for land use planning and issuing land use right certificates; negotiate and sign international trade and cooperation agreements, establish public service standards; support basic infrastructure; manage major dams and water conservancy works and main canals; conduct agricultural scientific research; manage markets to ensure fair competition; provide quarantine services, protect intellectual property rights; apply national management regulations based on scientific foundations; ensure stable pricing of essential foodstuffs to facilitate private investment.

- Develop investment forms involving both state and private participation (public-private partnerships, public-private cooperation, etc.) to mobilize social resources for agricultural and rural development and improve the efficiency of public investment.

3. Enhance the effectiveness of public investment management and utilization

a) Reasonably increase the proportion of state budget investment serving agricultural and rural development; enhance transparency and accountability in the management and utilization of public investment from the state budget and cooperative development funds.

b) Review and classify investment projects, adjust investment methods and sources to maximize social investment in agriculture. Improve project selection quality; end scattered and widespread investments. The state budget will focus on investing in areas with low capital recovery potential or unable to attract private investment.

c) Promote decentralization, grant local authorities more autonomy and responsibility for managing public expenditures, and mobilize local resources for small-scale projects implemented locally. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is responsible for managing large-scale projects, regional projects, inter-regional projects, national projects, and projects requiring complex technical expertise.

d) Public investment priorities in agriculture will change as follows:

- Fisheries sector: Increase investment in infrastructure for concentrated aquaculture, developing aquatic species, environmental monitoring systems, disease control and veterinary systems; continue investing in fish port projects and anchorage areas; support integrated management of nearshore fisheries resources; support investment in post-harvest preservation, processing, reducing losses, ensuring food safety, and improving the livelihoods of coastal fishermen and small producers.

- Agricultural sector: Prioritize programs and projects to develop high-yield, high-quality crop and livestock varieties resistant to pests, diseases, and climate change; invest in projects to monitor, prevent, and control pests and diseases; support investment in post-harvest preservation, processing, reducing losses, and ensuring food safety.

- Forestry sector: Prioritize investment in developing tree varieties for economic forest planting; closely cooperate with private seed companies to expand and develop seed supply systems; invest in enhancing forest fire prevention and firefighting capabilities; invest in community forestry management models and forest environmental service development.

- Regarding science, technology, human resource training, and market development: Prioritize investment in research institutes, human resource training institutions, forming high-tech research-training-production clusters according to ecological regions; invest in infrastructure and human resources for market information systems and regular forecasting providing information on supply-demand, prices domestically and internationally; support marketing, promotion, market development, and technology transfer.

- Water conservancy sector: Invest in multi-functional water conservancy projects to serve aquaculture, farming, animal husbandry, domestic water supply, and industrial production; prioritize investment in water conservancy projects for aquaculture, focusing capital investment on major water conservancy works, constructing dike systems, reservoir safety projects; prioritize more funding for upgrading, maintenance, and repair of water conservancy works after construction; build reservoirs in drought-prone areas, develop small-scale water conservancy combined with hydropower in mountainous regions; support water-saving methods; enhance the efficiency of water conservancy work management and exploitation.

4. Institutional reform

a) Continue restructuring and modernizing state-owned enterprises in the industry

Continue to intensify restructuring and modernizing state-owned enterprises in the industry; focus on restructuring and modernizing state-owned farms, forestry farms, and forestry companies to enhance the efficient use of forest resources and land; modernize and improve the efficiency and responsibility of irrigation companies; continue researching more suitable organizational forms for state-owned enterprises that have been converted over time.

b) Develop cooperative economy

Implement policies to encourage the development of cooperative economic models (cooperatives, cooperative groups) for voluntary economic groups participating in agricultural production and business activities.

Strengthen the participation of the Farmers' Association, industry associations in rural development programs; transfer some public service functions of the state to associations (trade promotion, extension services, market forecasting, quality standards, dispute resolution, etc.); promote the relationship between the state, farmers, scientists, and businesses.

Enhance the organizational management and operational capacity of agricultural cooperatives in providing agricultural input services, processing agricultural products, and accessing markets for members.

c) Develop public-private partnerships (PPP/PPC).

Implement state investment alongside enterprises in: (1) construction, management, and operation of agricultural and rural infrastructure projects, (2) agricultural production through provision of public services (extension services, research and technology transfer, human resource training, veterinary services, plant protection, etc.), mainly related to developing "value chains" through state guidance and support for better safe practices and environmental management, application of new technologies; private enterprises participate with the state in organizing production and product consumption to improve productivity, quality, and added value of products.

d) Continue to reform the system of scientific research, technology transfer, education, and public services.

- Continue to reform the operating mechanism and enhance the capacity of public institutions.

- Promote socialization of certain types of public services towards autonomy and responsibility; mobilize the participation of all economic sectors, especially non-state enterprises in scientific and technological activities, education, and other agricultural services; delegate strongly the extension activities to farmer organizations and enterprises; increase investment funds for science and technology, human resource training, and extension services.

- Enhance the role of farmer organizations and enterprises in determining priority research contents; perfect the monitoring and evaluation system for the effectiveness of scientific research, technology transfer, and human resource training in agriculture.

- Establish scientific centers with a large number of research agencies and scientific staff in key agricultural production areas.

- Support farmers to connect and access research, technology transfer, and application services; expand vocational training forms linked to technology transfer and new technology applications; replicate good models in vocational training for rural labor.

đ) Administrative reform

- Vigorously implement administrative reform with a focus on: reorganizing the state management machinery at the Ministry and local levels to ensure quick, smooth, proactive, and effective leadership; thoroughly simplify administrative procedures to create conditions for facilities and localities to quickly address demands effectively for production and business operations and other fields.

- Enhance the capacity of the inspection, testing, and quality control system for agricultural, forestry, aquatic products, salt industry materials, ensuring consumer rights and improving export efficiency.

5. Continue to amend and perfect the policy system.

a) Policies supporting and motivating agricultural production.

Develop policies to diversify and modernize extension services, helping farmers change farming practices and improve product quality, reduce post-harvest losses, storage, and consumption. Support farmers to connect with processing enterprises, product sales systems, gradually forming a production network and supply chain connecting production, processing, distribution, and sales; link industrial services for agriculture with agricultural production, linking the "four houses" in production and consumption; encourage investment in modern agricultural, forestry, and aquatic product processing industries, deep processing; gradually reduce and limit the export of raw agricultural products.

b) Land policy.

- Apply modern methods in land use planning; strictly review and control agricultural land use planning; implement transparency and openness in managing and supervising the implementation of land use planning according to Resolution 17/2011/QH13 of the National Assembly, particularly for rice-growing land, special-use forests, protective forests, land planned for strategic agricultural product development, major export products, land for livestock breeding and aquaculture; review and adjust to increase productive forest land area, reduce special-use and protective forest areas but still ensure disaster prevention, biodiversity, and environmental protection goals.

- Limit the requisition of agricultural land for other purposes; apply support policies to ensure the legitimate interests of land users whose land is requisitioned; facilitate institutional conditions for farmers to change land use purposes within the agricultural sector, achieving higher land use efficiency, including changing crops on rice land without long-term loss of rice production capacity.

c) Trade policy.

- Improve transparency and effectiveness in the operation of state management agencies for agricultural products trade; flexibly manage import and export to fulfill international commitments while protecting domestic production, consumer rights, and national food security.

- Regularly update and announce trade policies of partners, international organizations, and countries so that producers and traders can grasp and adjust their production and business plans effectively; proactively approach and negotiate with partners and countries to resolve disputes or remove trade barriers.

- Continue to strongly support trade promotion activities and the development of markets for agricultural, forestry, and aquatic products consumption.

- Strictly control and severely handle smuggling and fraud in the trade of agricultural, forestry, and aquatic products.

d) Monetary policy and finance

- Apply a flexible foreign exchange rate management mechanism to facilitate the import and export of agricultural products and agricultural inputs.

- Reasonably increase the proportion of state budget investment capital serving the development of agriculture and rural areas; continue to prioritize credit allocation for the agricultural sector and rural areas.

- Review, amend, and supplement financial mechanisms, policies, and legal regulations concerning the state budget to ensure transparency, accountability, and responsibility in the use of state budget funds related to the agricultural and rural sectors.

- Continue to review and adjust taxes and fees collected from agriculture, rural areas, and farmers to alleviate the burden on the people while reasonably supporting localities.

IV. IMPLEMENTATION

To take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and relevant ministries and sectors to urge, inspect, supervise, and resolve issues arising during the implementation of this Decree.

- Take the lead and coordinate with relevant ministries, sectors, and localities to implement this Project; study and propose mechanisms and policies to mobilize social resources for the Project.

- Establish a Steering Committee for restructuring chaired by the Minister to direct the implementation of the Project, coordinate, inspect, and supervise the implementation process.

- Develop an Action Plan, assign specific tasks to subordinate agencies, units, and localities to implement the Project.

- Annually compile and evaluate the implementation situation, report to the Prime Minister and relevant ministries and sectors; propose amendments and supplements to the Project when necessary.

2. Ministry of Planning and Investment

- Continue to implement the Resolution "on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas," prioritizing the allocation of state budget capital for the agricultural sector to carry out restructuring tasks.

- Take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and other relevant ministries, sectors, and localities to study, amend, and supplement mechanisms and policies to attract private investment for agriculture and rural areas; study mechanisms and policies to develop public-private partnership (PPP/PPC) investment models.

3. Ministry of Finance

- Review and amend tax and fee policies in a direction that facilitates production and business activities in the agricultural sector, supporting the implementation of this Project.

- Advise to ensure financial policies for the implementation of this Project.

4. Ministry of Science and Technology

Take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and relevant ministries and sectors to review, adjust, and supplement mechanisms and policies to enhance research, application, and technology transfer capabilities, socialize resources for scientific and technological development, and support the agricultural sector in implementing this Project.

5. Ministry of Industry and Trade

Coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to study trade policies, technical barriers, and flexible and effective management of import and export activities to promote agricultural product exports, protect domestic production, and develop agro-industries linked to industrial production, ensuring national food security.

Strictly control and severely handle smuggling and fraud in the trade of agricultural, forestry, and aquatic products.

6. Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

Coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and localities to review and strictly control planning and management, implement agricultural land use planning (especially rice fields), and propose policies related to land, natural resources, environmental protection, and biodiversity conservation in a direction that facilitates sustainable development in agriculture and rural areas.

7. The Ministry of Health

Closely coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development during the implementation of the Food Safety Law; direct localities to develop and implement strategies for nutritional security and rural environmental sanitation.

8. The State Bank of Vietnam

- Direct credit organizations to prioritize capital concentration for the agricultural and rural sectors; actively implement credit programs for the agricultural and rural sectors.

- Coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to review and study credit mechanisms and policies to support the agricultural sector in implementing this Project.

9. Localities

- Implement reviews and adjustments to planning and production structures towards concentrating on developing crop and livestock species that are advantageous and competitive with industry development plans and market demands; study and build production models and supportive mechanisms and policies that are appropriate and effective.

- Review and reorganize state-owned farms, forestry companies, and water management units within their jurisdiction to improve the efficiency of land use and other resources.

- Study mechanisms and policies to encourage investment that are suitable to the potential, advantages, and needs of the locality to attract social investment for agricultural and rural development within their jurisdiction.

Article 2. Implementation clause

1. This Decision shall take effect from the date of issuance.

2. Ministers, Heads of Ministries equivalent to ministries, Heads of government agencies, Chairmen of People's Committees of provinces and centrally governed cities shall be responsible for implementing this Decision./.