Businesses need mechanisms and policies more than financial support.

On the afternoon of June 19, at the Government Headquarters, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue chaired a workshop to collect opinions on the draft Decree on policies to encourage businesses to invest in agriculture and rural areas.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue speaks at the workshop. Photo: VGP/Thanh Chung

The procedure is still very complicated.

At the workshop, many delegates said that to attract investment in agriculture, it is necessary to show "potential investors" the attractiveness and feasibility of the project, the convenience in the implementation process, and the transparency and clarity of information during the implementation stage.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, as of September 2016, the country had only 4,424 enterprises operating in the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector, accounting for less than 1% of the total number of enterprises in the country. Decree 210, after 3 years of implementation, has only supported 64 projects with very small capital and very limited effects.

Giving the figure of 2015 budget to support 40 pilot projects of 21 localities with a total investment of about 6,000 billion VND, in 2016, the budget only allocated 185 billion VND as capital to implement support policies under Decree 210, the Deputy Prime Minister said that it was too small and could hardly solve anything, while the procedures were still very complicated. "In fact, many businesses are very discouraged when doing these procedures", said the Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr. Tran Manh Bao, Chairman of the Board of Directors, General Director of Thai Binh Seed Corporation, said that what businesses need the most support is administrative procedures when they invest, such as procedures for accessing land lease, procedures for attracting investment in purchasing technology machinery or tax procedures. In addition, businesses investing in the agricultural sector have many risks, so tax policies need to be different.

Mr. Bao commented that a 100 billion VND investment project requires many procedures, effort and time to receive 5 billion VND in support, so businesses do not do it.

Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of TH True Milk Group, Ms. Thai Huong, believes that in developing high-tech agriculture, ministries should agree on common regulations on product quality. The first regulation of agriculture must be product quality, because it is related to consumers. Enterprises should plan their own methods, the State should focus on quality control.

There are also opinions that currently the planning and structure of seedlings are very inadequate, confused and similar in some places, not identifying the strengths of each region to call for investment in a systematic way. Therefore, it is necessary to redefine the motivation to attract investment to be able to create effects and response actions from the private sector.

Need mechanisms, policies, and reduced support

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, considering Decree 210 too focused on support from the state budget in the context of limited resources, we must change the mindset of making Decrees, moving away from the mindset of Decree 210 related to mechanisms and policies to attract investment in agriculture, not simply supporting investment as it is now.

Expressing concern about some ministries and branches sitting at desks and not paying attention to issues that are feasible for businesses and what businesses need, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, what businesses need are good mechanisms and policies, rather than direct financial support.

Photo: VGP/Thanh Chung

In this spirit, the Deputy Prime Minister clearly stated the viewpoint and goal that needs to be achieved after the issuance of the new Decree, it is necessary to strongly attract a wave of businesses to invest in rural areas.

Appreciating the Ministry of Planning and Investment for taking a step to perfect the Decree, the Deputy Prime Minister hopes that by collecting opinions from a large number of managers, scientists, businesses, and associations, this policy on attracting investment in agriculture and rural areas will have a strong impact on the business community investing in agriculture and rural areas.

However, the Deputy Prime Minister said that through the opinions at the Workshop, it was shown that the draft Decree "is far from meeting the requirements" because it basically remains the same as Decree 210, only increasing the support level under the condition that money is increasingly scarce.

"If the way of thinking is like this Decree, it will never be issued. If it is issued but has no effect and cannot be put into practice, it is better to have no policy at all," the Deputy Prime Minister frankly admitted.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Planning and Investment to be the drafting agency, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to be the responsible ministry, to focus more on investment leadership in the development of the Decree. “The Government is very determined, and we who have been assigned to do so are also very worried,” the Deputy Prime Minister expressed.

The Deputy Prime Minister stated that the Decree, within the current legal framework, based on the Laws on Investment, Land, and Support for Small and Medium Enterprises, needs to specify these Laws. The approach must focus more on institutions and policies, not mainly on financial support.

Businesses need mechanisms and policies to develop more than financial support. Illustrative photo

If support is provided, it is mainly indirect, through policies on land rent, taxes, exemptions and reductions. Directly from the State's money, it focuses on small businesses, supporting and encouraging the establishment of businesses, innovation, start-ups in agriculture, rural areas, or leading businesses to become national brands, with outstanding local scale. Support sources are not only from the central and local budgets but also through science and technology development funds, integrating other programs, creating a framework for localities to allocate capital for implementation according to their capabilities.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Planning and Investment to systematize policies for rural agriculture and integrate them into the Decree. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should proactively get involved, solicit opinions from associations and businesses to propose investment policies in agriculture, and the two ministries should coordinate to complete the draft Decree.

The Deputy Prime Minister also emphasized the need to review support regulations, towards transparent regulations, convenient and easy conditions, avoiding unidentifiable situations, asking and giving, negativity, and corruption of officials.

To encourage investment, it is not only the administrative procedures with approval and payment of support money but also the entire investment and business procedures in this field, including 12 types of procedures with 16 steps and 40 types of documents for investment in agriculture and rural areas. Business registration procedures must be simplified, the Deputy Prime Minister stated./.

According to Thanh Chung/baotintuc