President Nguyen Xuan Phuc proposed a number of solutions to ensure food security.
President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has proposed a number of solutions to ensure food security in the context of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic and said Vietnam wants to become a center of food innovation in the region.
Continuing his activities in the United States, on September 23 (local time), President Nguyen Xuan Phuc sent a message to the United Nations Summit on Food Systems chaired by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Speaking at the Conference, high-ranking leaders of countries and the UN Secretary-General emphasized the need to strengthen multilateral cooperation to join hands to promote innovative solutions and change the way food is produced, processed and consumed to transform food systems towards a healthier, more sustainable and more equitable direction, better protecting people and the planet, leaving no one behind, and actively contributing to the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations by 2030.
In his speech, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc stated that coordination between countries, partners, and factors in the food system must be for the benefit of the people. In Vietnam, ensuring food is the foundation for hunger eradication, poverty reduction, improving people's lives, and an opportunity to develop transparent, responsible, and sustainable Vietnamese agriculture.
In that spirit, the President proposed a number of solutions. The first is to transform agricultural growth into multi-value integration including economic, social, cultural, and environmental landscape values; ensure the development of green, low-emission, and natural agriculture, adapting to climate change and the complex developments of the COVID-19 pandemic. Focus on developing the rural economy, ensuring food supply, reducing food loss and waste; rationally using resources and conserving biodiversity.
Along with that, the President said that countries need to pay more attention to investing in agriculture and rural areas: "Investing in the synchronous development of agricultural infrastructure to serve production and develop the rural economy, promoting the role of farmers as the main subject, encouraging the participation of the private sector in responsible and creative investment, applying technical advances, and replicating effective public-private partnership models; Building and updating the national nutritional balance sheet as a basis for production and distribution orientation, strengthening communication and education to create a healthy food environment, reasonable eating habits, balanced nutrition, green consumption trends, and responsibility to avoid loss and waste; Digital transformation needs to go hand in hand with innovation in social security and institutions, in which farmers and consumers are the center; Vietnam has formed innovation networks and is ready to participate in the United Nations' cooperation frameworks and wants to develop into a food innovation center in the region".
To sustainably develop the food system, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc said it is necessary to expand international cooperation in research, forecasting, building an information system to warn of risks of natural disasters and epidemics; sustainably manage the country's resources, biodiversity and forests; and manage transboundary water resources and marine resources.
In his speech, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc conveyed the message that nothing is impossible if we act together to make the United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a reality./.
