Ha Noi (VNA) – Tripartite cooperation projects between Viet Nam, African nations and FAO have been instrumental in shoring up food security inside some of the world’s poorest countries, said a government official.
Nguyen Anh Tuan, head of the Department for Africa, West Asia and South Asia under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the cooperation model of “2+1” has proven to be a right choice and brought in positive results, particularly in the field of agriculture and rural development.
Tens of thousands of experts in health, education and agriculture have been sent to the continent over the last decade. But it has been agriculture and in particular wet rice farming and animal breeding techniques imparted to rural populations that have pundits hopeful that the cycle of poverty and famine may be on the wane.
At a conference reviewing nine years of the tripartite cooperation in Ha Noi in June, representatives from African countries spoke glowingly of Vietnamese specialists’ contributions as well as their experiences.
Encouraged by the initial results, Tanzania, Mozambique, Sudan, Togo and Mali proposed Viet Nam send an additional 300 agriculturalists to show case rice cultivation and irrigation system developments.
Bui My Binh, an expert from the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), said a delegation from the Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture is scheduled to arrive in Ha Noi this month to glean information on the success of the staple crop in Viet Nam.
”Viet Nam and FAO have been aggressive in preparing human and financing resources in order to speed up cooperation projects signed with African nations,” she said.
Tripartite cooperation between Viet Nam, Africa and foreign partners have been expanded to many other areas, said Tuan, adding that his ministry is coordinating with the MARD, FAO and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to study the possibility of investing in aquaculture, seafood and wood processing, plastic and pharmaceutical industries.-Enditem
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