Finding solutions to promote production, processing and export of forest products in the period 2021 - 2025

Comrades: Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung; Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong; Permanent Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan; Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Cao Quoc Hung; Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghe An province Nguyen Duc Trung; Chairman of the Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association Do Xuan Lap co-chaired the Conference.

Attending the conference were representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Public Security, Voice of Vietnam, Vietnam Cooperative Alliance; associations, forestry growing and processing industries; and leaders of Nghe An province.

Comrades chaired the Conference on solutions to promote production, processing and export of forest products in 2021 and the period 2021-2025. Photo: Pham Bang

REMOVING DIFFICULTIES, STRIVING TO REACH 18-20 BILLION USD BY 2025

Speaking at the opening of the Conference, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said,kforest economyplays an extremely important role in the economic development of the country. Therefore, the Party, State and Government have had policies and decisions focusing on that development.

Since 1990, Vietnam has fundamentally solved the food problem and focused on forest development in particular andforestry economic ecosystemIn general, in a short period of time, we have formed a fairly basic forest economic ecosystem.

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung and leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Nghe An province visited booths displaying and introducing wood products. Photo: Pham Bang

From 28% forest cover in 1990, up to now, there are 14.6 million hectares of forest, the total coverage rate is 42%. Laws and policies for forestry work and forest economy are increasingly completed. Since November 19, 2018, Vietnam has officially integrated internationally in the sustainable development of the forestry economy.

Deep integration into the international market has brought and will bringwood processing and forestry export industrycertain favorable conditions and opportunities but also affected by many aspects of the world market with many difficulties and challenges such as: Impact of Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, difficulties in attracting labor, anti-dumping lawsuit trends, product subsidies, application of tariff barriers...

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong delivered the opening speech at the Conference. Photo: Pham Bang

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the Conference was organized with the spirit of working with businesses to find good solutions, new ways of doing things, adapting to the domestic, regional and world market situation to support businesses to overcome difficulties and challenges, promote production, processing and export of forest products in 2021 to reach 14-14.5 billion USD and by 2025 to reach 18-20 billion USD.

According to the report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in 2019, the whole country had 5,539 enterprises and 340 craft villages producing, trading, and processing wood and forestry products. In the first 10 months of the year, the export value of wood and forestry products reached 10.46 billion USD, up 15% over the same period in 2019, accounting for nearly 30% of the export value of the entire agricultural sector.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan reported on the production results of the wood and forestry processing and export industry in 2020. Photo: Pham Bang

Many businesses have focused on investing in modern equipment with automatic production lines, saving raw materials and being environmentally friendly. Labor productivity in the wood and forestry processing industry continues to increase, reaching about 25,000 USD/person/year. The US, Japan, China, EU and South Korea markets continue to be important markets for Vietnamese wood and forestry products.

In addition, the quality of planted forests has been improved, increasing the value per unit area of ​​planted production forests. To date, the country has 600,000 hectares of large timber forests and over 200,000 hectares of planted production forests certified for sustainable forest management according to international standards.

NGHE AN CALLS FOR BUSINESS INVESTMENT

Speaking at the Conference, Comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee emphasized that in recent times, Nghe An province has made great efforts in attracting investment; promptly reviewed, adjusted, and supplemented mechanisms and policies to attract investment, innovated approaches, and directed strongly to strongly improve the investment and business environment in an open direction, creating the most favorable conditions for businesses and investors; effectively implemented many solutions to support and remove difficulties and obstacles for investors.

Nghe An is the province with the largest forest and forestry land area in the country, with a total planned forestry land area of ​​over 1.16 million hectares, accounting for 71.6% of the total natural area of ​​the province; of which, the planned production forest area is over 622,000 hectares.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu spoke at the conference. Photo: Pham Bang

Up to now, the whole province has over 965,000 hectares of forest land, of which the planted forest area is over 180,000 hectares, forest cover reaches 58.5%; wood reserves are over 91 million m3.³, of which, over 9.6 million m³plantation timber; over 1.94 billion bamboo trees, meters. The average annual timber output recently reached 1.2 - 1.4 million m³, the average annual exploitable output is about 2.5 million m³.

The annual forest plantation area reaches about 18,000 hectares; initially forming a number of deep wood product processing facilities, has brought real economic efficiency to forest growers and businesses.

In the coming time, Nghe An province is determined to create a breakthrough as well as promote the forestry industry and especially wood processing production in the North Central region to develop strongly, making the North Central region become the key development center for wood processing and forestry industry of the whole Central region.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien - Member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Group spoke at the Conference. Photo: Pham Bang

On behalf of the Provincial People's Committee, Comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu called on investors to continue to pay attention, learn about and invest in Nghe An province in general and especially invest in the High-tech Forestry Zone in the North Central region in Nghe An province in particular.

Nghe An province commits to creating the most favorable conditions for investors in handling administrative procedures, ensuring that investors enjoy the highest investment incentives according to Government regulations.

STRIVE TO PLANT 1 BILLION LARGE TREES BY 2025

Concluding the Conference, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung highly appreciated the outstanding efforts, early stabilization of production, quick adaptation and overcoming the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic of the wood and forestry processing and export industry in 2020. Thereby, continuing to maintain a high growth streak, the export turnover value reached 12.6 billion USD, up 11.5% compared to 2019, continuing to be in the group of 10 key export products of the country, ranking first in ASEAN, second in Asia and fifth in the world.

Pointing out the shortcomings, limitations as well as difficulties and challenges that the forest product processing and export industry is facing, the Deputy Prime Minister further emphasized that the development of the wood and forest product processing industry is identified by the Government as a key economic sector in agricultural production, making an important contribution to Vietnam's export turnover.

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung delivered a concluding speech at the conference. Photo: Pham Bang

Reiterating the industry's development target of 14-14.5 billion USD in wood and forestry product export turnover by 2021 and 18-20 billion USD by 2025, Mr. Trinh Dinh Dung requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to coordinate with ministries, branches and localities to develop and submit to competent authorities for approval a forest inventory project, correctly assessing the current state of Vietnam's forests. Review, amend and supplement mechanisms and policies related to forestry, especially investment, forest protection, development, forest product processing; policies on tax, land, science and technology.

Along with that, build a strategy and plan for forestry development for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2045, and related programs and projects. In particular, pay attention to planning for forestry development based on restructuring the forestry industry and planning processing facilities with raw material areas. Determine a reasonable structure between imported wood materials and domestic wood materials; Develop deep processing facilities to meet the needs of improving productivity, quality, efficiency, and competitiveness in the processing stage.

Build a policy mechanism to encourage large enterprises with scale and financial and technological potential to play a leading role in leading the development of small and medium enterprises, to create a force of high-quality Vietnamese forest product processing enterprises.

Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association launches Green Vietnam Fund. Photo: Pham Bang

Focus on wood processing infrastructure, build exhibition centers, design regional-scale wood products; build a number of high-tech forestry zones linked to raw material areas; develop the wood processing industry in the direction of linking along product value chains; encourage and create conditions for businesses to apply high, advanced, and environmentally friendly technology; focus on training human resources, this is vital for businesses.

The Deputy Prime Minister also requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to pay attention to directing localities to develop large timber resources, striving to achieve 1 million hectares of large timber forests certified for sustainable forest management by 2025, meeting 80% of domestic timber resources; implementing the Prime Minister's request that from now until 2025 the whole country plant 1 billion trees; strictly control illegal timber sources, and strictly handle trade fraud.

Nghe An province currently has 965,057 hectares of forested land, of which the planted forest area is about 181,000 hectares, with forest cover reaching 58.5%. Photo courtesy

The tasks facing the wood and forestry processing industry in the coming time are very heavy, but the Deputy Prime Minister hopes that businesses will continue to promote the achieved results, overcome difficulties to effectively invest in production and business, bringing high benefits to businesses, the forestry industry and workers. At the same time, he believes that the Vietnamese wood and forestry processing industry will achieve its set goals, contributing to the development of the country's economy in the period of industrialization and modernization.