At the 2020 International Support Group (JSG) Plenary Meeting on December 11 in Hanoi, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and international partners adopted the Joint Declaration on “Cooperation for Vietnam's agriculture and rural development in the context of the Covid 19”.

An overview of the 2020 ISG meeting on December 11, Hanoi. Photo: VGP

Under the joint statement, ISG pledged to strengthen its cooperation with the government of Vietnam on measures to increase agricultural resilience in the context of the pandemic.

Speaking at the 2020 ISG meeting, with the theme "Vietnam's agriculture and rural development in the context of Covid-19: opportunities and challenges," Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh said after this meeting, the MARD will work with each partner to turn this Joint Declaration into reality to support the sector in the near future.

2020 is a difficult year in which the whole world, including Vietnam, has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, said the vice minister, the agricultural sector and rural inhabitants, are also affected by climate change and natural disasters.

In the past time, the ministry has closely coordinated with other ministries, sectors and localities, along with the active support of the international community to implement timely and effective solutions. As a result, in the first 11 months of 2020, the value of farm export was estimated at US$37.42 billion, up 2.4% over the same period in 2019.

Besides the efforts from Vietnam, Mr. Doanh underlined the support of the international community, which is very important and necessary in mobilizing resources of international organizations for coping with the Covid-19 pandemic.

To develop agriculture in the context of climate change adaptation, Ms. Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam, said that the direction of green production, green strategies and actions can be taken into consideration.

The farming sector needs to restructure its crops to ensure sustainability and good resilience because Vietnam is not only dealing with epidemics, but also climate change. Therefore, the country needs to take advantage of its ability to innovate and apply technology towards good resilience and green development, Ms. Wiesen said.

The ISG Plenary Meeting is a high-level policy dialogue forum held annually between the MARD and international donor communities, business groups and partners to exchange and share policy orientation and priorities of the two sides in order to promote international cooperation, strengthen coordination of resources to promote Vietnam’s agricultural development towards sustainability.